EU Commission clears BASF’s acquisition of Solvay’s polyamide business

The EU Commission has granted conditional clearance for BASF to acquire Solvay’s polyamide business.

This approval is an important milestone for the transaction.

Closing is expected in the second half of 2019 after all remaining closing conditions have been fulfilled, including the sale of a remedy package to a third party.

During the approval process in Europe, BASF made commitments to address the competition concerns of the EU Commission.

They require divesting parts of the original transaction scope to a third-party buyer, namely manufacturing assets and innovation capabilities of Solvay’s polyamide business in Europe.

The divestment process started in Q4 2018.

The polyamide businesses to be acquired in the Americas and in Asia are not affected by the commitments.

BASF will achieve key strategic objectives from the acquisition and strengthen its polyamide 6.6 business significantly.

The acquisition will complement BASF’s engineering plastics portfolio, enhance the access to key growth markets in Asia and South America, as well as strengthen the value chain through backward integration into key raw materials such as ADN (adipodinitrile).