The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Glencore's and Sual's aluminium assets by EN+. The Commission concluded that the operation would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.
The EN+ group has interests in several sectors and owns Rusal, a vertically-integrated aluminium and alumina company, whose principal production assets are in Russia.
Glencore's assets to be acquired by EN+ comprise Jamaican bauxite mines and various alumina refineries in Ireland, Jamaica and Italy, together with one aluminium smelter in Sweden.
Sual's assets to be acquired by EN+ are involved in all stages of the aluminium production process, and are based in Russia and in Ukraine.
The proposed transaction would result in the creation of UC Rusal, an intermediate holding company between EN+ and its current subsidiary Rusal, which would take over the assets of Glencore and Sual.
The Commission’s examination of the proposed transaction revealed that the activities of EN+ and the assets to be acquired mainly overlap on alumina and primary aluminium both worldwide and in the EEA. However the new entity would continue to face effective competition.
The proposed transaction also gives rise to several vertical relationships between the markets for bauxite, alumina, white fused alumina, aluminium and aluminium foil. The Commission's examination of the proposed transaction showed that the new entity's positions would be well below a level where it could prevent effective competition on any of these markets.
Finally, the Commission found that Glencore would retain certain bauxite and commodity hydrate activities and would have one representative in UC Rusal's board. However given the limited shares of the new entity and of the assets retained by Glencore on both these markets, Glencore and EN+ would not be in a position to restrict competition by coordinating their behaviour.
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