EU Mergers and Takeovers 11 Jul 2016

BRUSSELS :  The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process:

APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS

— French company Plastic Omnium to acquire French car parts maker Faurecia’s auto exteriors business (approved July 11)

— U.S. private equity firm AEA to acquire Danish freight forwarder Scan Global Logistics (approved July 8)

— Private investor firms Partners Group and Infrared Capital Partners to jointly acquire windpark operator Merkur Offshore (approved July 8)

NEW LISTINGS

— U.S. contract medical research provider Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc to merge with U.S. healthcare information company IMS Health Holdings Inc (notified July 7/deadline Aug. 12)

EXTENSIONS AND OTHER CHANGES

None

FIRST-STAGE REVIEWS BY DEADLINEJULY 15

— Private equity firm PIA Partners-owned R&R Ice Cream and Nestle to set up a joint venture to sell ice cream and frozen food (notified June 10/deadline July 15)

— Polish investment company Kulczyk Holding S.A. and construction company Strabag Sp. z.o.o., which is a unit of Austrian construction group Strabag SE, to set up a joint venture (notified June 10/deadline July 15/simplified)

JULY 19

— Dutch investment company NPM Capital and Thijs Hendrix Beheer B.V. to jointly acquire animal and fish breeder Hendrix Genetics, which is now controlled by Thijs Hendrix Beheer (notified June 14/deadline July 19/simplified)

JULY 20— U.S. generic drugmaker Mylan to acquire Swedish peer Meda (notified June 1/deadline extended to July 20 from July 6 after Mylan offered concessions)

— French drugmaker Sanofi to acquire Germany company Boehringer Ingelheim’s consumer healthcare business (notified June 15/deadline July 20)

JULY 22

— Spanish online bank Bancopopular-e, which is 49-percent owned by Banco Popular Espanol, to acquire Portuguese lender Banco Popular Portugal’s payment cards’ buisness (notified June 16/deadline July 22/simplified)

— Private investment company Maxburg Investments II GmbH & Co and VR Equity Partner to jointly acquire German fabric producer Norafin Verwaltungs GmbH (notified June 16/deadline July 22/simplified)

— Investment bank Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank to jointly acquire some assets from National Bank of Greece (notified June 16/deadline July 22/simplified)

JULY 25

— French oil and gas producer Total to acquire sole control of French industrial battery maker Saft Groupe S.A. (notified June 17/deadline July 25/simplified)

— Finnish crane maker Konecranes to acquire U.S. crane maker Terex’s cranes business for ports and factories (MHPS) (deadline June 17/deadline July 25)

— U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus and French investment firm Wendel to set up a joint venture (notified June 17/deadline July 25/simplified)

JULY 26— Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp and Japanese marketing company MonotaRO Co to set up an Indonesian joint venture (notified June 20/deadline July 26/simplified)

— Czech energy group Energeticky a prumyslovy holding, a.s (EPH) to acquire Italian utility Enel’s Slovakian company Slovenske elektrarne a.s (notified June 20/deadline July 26)

JULY 27

— Investment firms IK and Five Arrows Managers to jointly acquire French real estate intermediary I@D (notified June 21/deadline July 27/simplified)

— Novy Invest, BNP Paribas Fortis, Sofindev IV and DHAM NV to jointly acquire kitchen appliances makerNovy International (notified June 21/deadline July 27/simplified)

JULY 28

— German company Boehringer Ingelheim to acquire French pharmaceutical company Sanofi’s animal health buisness (notified June 8/deadline extended to July 28 from July 13 after Boehringer offered concessions)

– U.S. chemicals company Dow Chemical to merge with DuPont (notified June 22/deadline July 28)

JULY 29

— Jones Lang LaSalle to acquire UK management services provider Integral UK Holding (notified June 23/deadline July 29/simplified)

— General Motors France and French car retailer Groupe Dubreuil Claro to set up a joint venture (notified June 23/July 29/simplified)

AUG 1

— Sony Corp to buy out the Michael Jackson estate’s stake in its music publishing joint venture (notified June 24/deadline Aug. 1)

— Private equity firm Thoma Bravo to acquire business intelligence software company Qlik Technologies (notified June 24/deadline Aug. 1/simplified)

AUG 2

— Italian refinery Raffineria di Milazzo S.C.p.A., which is jointly controlled by Italian oil producer Eni S.p.A. and Kuwait Petroleum Italia S.p.A., to joint Italian thermal power plant Termica Milazzo from Italian energy group Edison S.p.A. (notified June 27/dateline Aug. 2/simplified)

— Chinese gaming group Tencent Holdings Ltd to acquire Finnish mobile game maker Supercell from Japanese Internet and telecoms group SoftBank Group (notified June 27/deadline Aug. 2/simplified)

AUG 3

— British mobile telephony operator Vodafone and U.S. cable company Liberty Global to merge their Dutch operations (notified June 14/deadline extended to Aug. 3 from July 19 after the Dutch competition authority asked to take over the case)

AUG 4

— Australian investment bank Macquarie and Swiss Life Group to acquire joint control of Italian transmission system operator Societa Gasdoti Italia S.p.A. (notified June 29/deadline Aug. 4/simplified)

— Swedish carmaker Volvo to acquire joint control of financial services provider Volvofinans Bank (notified June 29/deadline Aug. 4/simplified)

AUG 9

— Investment company Partners Group-led consortium to acquire French property management services provider Foncia from private equity firms Bridgepoint and Eurazeo (notified July 4/deadline Aug. 9)

— Japanese tyre maker Bridgestone Corp and German tyre retailer Pneuhage Management GmbH & Co. KG to set up a joint venture (notified July 4/deadline Aug. 9/simplified)

— Dutch paints and coating producer Akzo Nobel to acquire German chemicals maker BASF’s industrial coatings business (notified July 4/deadline Aug. 9)

AUG 10

— Buyout firm EQT to acquire German engineering services group Bilfinger’s building and facility unit (notified July 5/deadline Aug. 10/simplified)

— U.S. paint company Sherwin-Williams Co to acquire U.S. rival Valspar Corp (notified July 5/deadline Aug. 10)

— Airbus Safran Launchers, a 50/50 joint venture between Airbus and Safran, to acquire sole control of satellite group Arianespace (notified on Jan. 8/deadline extended to Aug. 10 from July 27/concessions offered May 4)

SEPT 8

— CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd and Vimpelcom to merge their Italian mobile operations (notified Feb. 5/deadline extended to Sept. 8 from Aug 18)

OCT 18

— U.S. rail equipment maker Wabtec Corp to acquire French peer Faiveley Transport SA (notified April 4/deadline extended for the second time to Oct 18 from Sept. 20)

SUSPENDED

— SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state energy company, to buy stakes in Greek natural gas grid operator DESFA from Greek natural gas utility DEPA (notified Oct. 1/deadline suspended on Jan. 21

GUIDE TO EU MERGER PROCESS

DEADLINES:

The European Commission has 25 working days after a deal is filed for a first-stage review. It may extend that by 10 working days to 35 working days, to consider either a company’s proposed remedies or an EU member state’s request to handle the case.

Most mergers win approval but occasionally the Commission opens a detailed second-stage investigation for up to 90 additional working days, which it may extend to 105 working days.

SIMPLIFIED:

Under the simplified procedure, the Commission announces the clearance of uncontroversial first-stage mergers without giving any reason for its decision. Cases may be reclassified as non-simplified – that is, ordinary first-stage reviews – until they are approved.