EU Clears Acquisition Of Belchim By Mitsui

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Belchim by Mitsui. The approval is conditional on full compliance with a commitments package offered by Mitsui.

Belchim and Mitsui both distribute third-party crop protection products and supply their own formulated products for high-value crops such as potatoes, vegetables, and vines. For such crops, both companies sell a wide range of products that are mostly based on off-patent active ingredients. In the European Economic Area (EEA), Mitsui is mainly active in crop protection through its subsidiary Certis, based in the Netherlands.

To address the Commission’s competition concerns, Mitsui offered to transfer the Mitsui distribution agreement and customer relationships for its potato PGRs in one or two packages (one for Germany and Poland and the other for the Nordic countries) to one or two remedy takers. If Mitsui cannot transfer both packages within a certain timeframe, it has offered to instead transfer the Belchim distribution agreement and customer relationships for its PGR product under the same terms.

These commitments fully remove the overlaps between Mitsui and Belchim in the markets where the Commission had identified competition concerns.

The Commission therefore concluded that the proposed transaction, as modified by the commitments, would no longer raise competition concerns in the EEA. The decision is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments.

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