Brussels - The European Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition of US-based Lyondell Chemical Co. by Luxembourg-based Basell AF S.C.A.
The Commission said in a 26 Oct statement that its investigation found that the proposed transaction would not impede competition in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Basell, controlled by the Access group, is mainly active in polyolefins. Holding company Access, owned by Russian billionaire Leonard Blatvik, is in the oil, petrochemicals, coal, aluminium, power, real estate and telecommunications sectors.
Chemical, plastics and fuel products maker Lyondell, meanwhile, focuses in the EAA ellon propylene oxide (PO), used in the polyurethane industry for making polyols.
Since Lyondell sells only negligible quantities of polyolefins in the EEA, imported from the US, competition is not an issue. "The proposed transaction would create very limited horizontal overlaps in the production and sale of polyolefins and olefins," said the statement.
Basell said 19 July that it would pay $19 000 million for Houston-based Lyondell, which claims to be the world's largest maker of PO with nearly 46 000 million lb (21 million tonnes) a year capacity.
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