EU restarts anti-competition investigation into the Dow Chemical-DuPont merger
EU competition regulators restarted their investigation into the $130bn (£101bn) merger of US chemicals giant Dow Chemical and DuPoint after the companies provided key data.
The EU Commission added it will now decide whether to approval the mega-deal by 6 February, however this deadline could be pushed back again.
Commission spokesman, Ricardo Cardoso, confirmed in an email to Reuters that the companies had submitted the missing information requested by the Commission.
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It temporarily stopped the investigation in September, a month after it opened a probe into the tie-up amid competition concerns over the creation of the world's largest integrated crop protection and seeds company.
Dow Chemical and DuPoint announced their plan to create DowDuPont in December last year. Once formed, it will be split into three separate companies focused on agriculture, materials and speciality products.
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Andrew Liveris, the current chief executive of Dow Chemical, will be appointed chief executive of the new, combined company, while DuPont chief executive, Edward Breen, will take the role of chairman.
It comes amid a wave of mergers and acquisitions activity in the agricultural chemicals industry in recent months.
The Commission is also looking at China National Chemical Corp's planned $43bn takeover of Swiss seed giant Syngenta, while the world's biggest seed company Monsanto is being bought by crop chemicals manufacturer Bayer.