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Trending this season at the European Commission: agrochemical mergers
On 22 August 2017 the European Commission opened a Phase II investigation into the proposed acquisition of Monsanto Company by Bayer AG for US $66 billion. The proposed concentration would create the world’s largest integrated pesticides and seeds company, at a time of significant consolidation within the agrochemicals industry. Bayer/Monsanto is the last of three transformative concentrations within the agrochemicals sector, preceded by Dow/DuPont and ChemChina/Syngenta, both conditionally cleared by the Commission at Phase II earlier this year. Each transaction was assessed on its own merits, but also subject to the ‘priority’ rule: the transaction that is notified first is assessed first. Bayer/Monsanto will therefore be assessed in light of the market structure created after the Dow/DuPont and ChemChina/Syngenta mergers.
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Competition & Regulatory Newsletter (23 Aug - 05 Sep 2017)