Case No COMP/M.6500 - RAVAGO/ BARENTZ EUROPE/ JV

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REGULATION (EC) No 139/2004 MERGER PROCEDURE

Article 6(1)(b) NON-OPPOSITION Date: 16/03/2012

In electronic form on the EUR-Lex website under document number 32012M6500

Office for Publications of the European Union L-2985 Luxembourg

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Brussels, 16.3.2012 C(2012) 1879

PUBLIC VERSION

SIMPLIFIED MERGER PROCEDURE

To the notifying parties

Dear Madam(s) and/or Sir(s),

Subject: Case No COMP/M.6500 - Ravago/ Barentz Europe/JV Commission decision pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004

1.On 19 January 2012, the European Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of the Merger Regulation by which the undertakings Barentz Europe ("Barentz", the Netherlands) and Ravago SA ("Ravago", Luxembourg) acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation joint control of Barentz Ravago Chemical Specialist SA ('the JV', Luxembourg) by way of purchase of shares in a newly created company constituting a joint venture.

2.This notification was declared incomplete on 26 January 2012. The undertakings concerned have now provided the further information required. The notification became complete within the meaning of Article 10(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 on 15 February 2012.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

− for Barentz: distribution of ingredients and additives for the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics, chemical and animal nutrition industries,

1OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 ("the Merger Regulation"). With effect from 1 December 2009, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ("TFEU") has introduced certain changes, such as the replacement of "Community" by "Union" and "common market" by "internal market". The terminology of the TFEU will be used throughout this decision.

2Publication in the Official Journal of the European Union No C 52, 22.2.2012, p. 16.

Commission européenne, 1049 Bruxelles, BELGIQUE / Europese Commissie, 1049 Brussel - BELGIË. Telephone: (32-2) 299 11 11.

− for Ravago: distribution, resale, compounding and recycling services for plastic and elastomeric raw materials,

− for the JV: chemical distribution.

3.After examination of the notification, the European Commission has concluded that the notified operation falls within the scope of the Merger Regulation and of paragraph 5(c) of the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004.

For the reasons set out in the Notice on a simplified procedure, the European Commission has decided not to oppose the notified operation and to declare it compatible with the internal market and with the EEA Agreement. This decision is adopted in application of Article 6(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation.

For the Commission (signed) Alexander ITALIANER Director General

3OJ C 56, 5.3.2005, p. 32.

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