Brussels, 22/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 19 September, the European Commission cleared the proposed acquisition of Enodis of the UK by Manitowoc of the US. Manitowoc is active in several sectors including the production of cold-focused equipment in the foodservice industry. Enodis is a global food and beverage equipment manufacturer.
The parties' activities overlap in relation to ice-making machines and beverage dispensing systems. The Commission's initial investigation showed that this would raise competition concerns at EEA level and in a number of member states, where in relation to three types of ice-making machines (self-contained cubers, modular cubers and flake machines), market shares would be very high. All other competitors to the combined entity have substantially lower market shares. To remove the Commission's concerns, Manitowoc offered to divest Enodis' entire ice-making machines business, including three production facilities in Italy. After market testing the proposed remedies, the Commission concluded that they were suitable to address the competition concerns initially identified in its market investigation.