Brussels, 29/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 26 October 2007, the European Commission cleared the planned acquisition of Lyondell Chemical Company of the US by the Luxembourg based Basell AF S.C.A. The Commission's investigation found that the proposed transaction would not impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.
Basell is controlled by the Access group, a holding company mainly active in the oil, petrochemicals, coal, aluminium, power, real estate and telecommunications sectors. In the EEA, Lyondell focuses on the production and sale of propylene oxide and related products. Lyondell is a manufacturer of chemicals, plastics and fuel products. Lyondell sells only negligible quantities of polyolefins in the EEA, which are imported from the company's manufacturing plants in the US. (For further details, see http: //ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/mergers/cases/index/m96.html#m_4848) (L.C.)