Mergers: Commission approves acquisition of chemical company DuPont's GLSV business by rival Kuraray, subject to conditions

EU News 196/2014

IP/14/498
Brussels, 29 April 2014

The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of DuPont's Glass Laminating Solutions/Vinyls (GLSV) business (USA) by Kuraray of Japan. The clearance is conditional upon the divestment of GLSV's PVB film production facility in Uentrop (Germany), where the merged entity would have otherwise faced insufficient competitive constraint from the only one remaining player, leading to higher prices. Both parties to the transaction are active in the manufacture and supply of the following products which are part of one vertical chain: Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM), Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA), Polyvinyl Butyral (PVB) resin and PVB film. The main impact of the transaction is in PVB film, which is used as an interlayer in the manufacture of laminated safety glass in the architectural and automotive industries. PVB film ensures that when the glass breaks the fragments remain stuck to the film in between.

Source and additional information:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-498_en.htm?locale=en

• Tweet