The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the creation of a joint venture between Avril Pôle Animal (‘APA’) of France and Tönnies International Holding Gmbh of Germany, belonging to the Tönnies group (‘Tönnies’).
APA has activities throughout the oil and protein sectors, including the slaughtering of pigs and the production, marketing and sale of pork products for human and animal consumption. Tönnies is active in the purchasing and slaughtering of pigs and beef cattle, as well as the processing, packaging and sale of meat products. The joint venture will process, package and sell at retail level fresh pork and beef products of French origin for human consumption.
The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would raise no competition concerns, because the joint venture's market position in the European Economic Area (EEA) will be very limited. The transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure. More information is available on the Commission's competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.7841.
Friday Mars 4, 2016/ EC/ European Union.
http://europa.eu/rapid