September 26, 2007

EU approves Nutreco's acquisition of BASF's animal feed premix operations

The European Commission approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of parts of the animal feed premix business of the German company BASF Aktiengesellschaft by Dutch feed firm Nutreco. After examining the operation, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.

Nutreco plans to purchase BASF's premix plants in Italy, Poland, United Kingdom, United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Indonesia and China. Nutreco will not acquire BASF's premix interests in France or Spain or BASF's upstream production of vitamins and feed additives.

Although the acquisition would hoist Nutreco's position as one of the major producers of premixes in Europe, the Commission's investigation showed that the market would remain competitive with a sufficient number of alternative suppliers. This is also true in the case of the United Kingdom where the merged entity has a relatively high market share.

As BASF would maintain its production of vitamins and feed additives, the Commission also concluded that competitors' access to these raw materials would not be affected by the proposed acquisition.

BASF is a leading chemical company with a product portfolio ranging from chemicals, plastics, agricultural products and fine chemicals to crude oil and natural gas. As part of the restructuring operations, BASF is withdrawing from the production of animal premixes.

Nutreco is one of the world's leading manufactures of animal feed premixes and is also active in the production of compound feed for animals, fish feed and meat processing. Compound feed is the final feed product given to animals. It consists of an energy or protein source like grain or soy, together with a proportion of premix.