DSM, Roche deal cleared by Commission
of Roche Vitamins and Fine Chemicals, it said yesterday. The deal,
likely to be completed in the third quarter 2003, will cost DSM
€1,750 million.
The European Commission has conditionally cleared DSM's acquisition of Roche Vitamins and Fine Chemicals, it said yesterday.
The deal was signed in February but has since been held up over Commission concerns relating to the companies' feed enzymes businesses which overlap.
The Commission said Netherlands-based DSM must end its alliance with BASF - which distributes DSM products - and divest its production and research and development activities in feed enzymes, before the acquisition is cleared.
Roche also has a distribution alliance with Novozymes, a Danish producer of industrial enzymes, which would give DSM's new business a monopoly on the market for the phytase enzyme.
The transfer of production, research and development and intellectual property rights to a purchaser (to be approved by the Commission) will create a viable competitor in the food enzyme market, said the Commission.
The operation is also being reviewed by the US Federal Trade Commission with which the Commission is closely co-operating.
Yesterday DSM said it would wipe €200 million off the purchase price of the vitamins unit, owing to poor current market conditions in vitamins and costs from the competition authorities approval process. It will now pay €1,750 million for the business, made up of cash and stocks.
