European Union merger watchdogs restarted the clock in their probe of plans by Dow Chemical Co and DuPont Co to create the world’s biggest chemical company after taking time out to demand more details about the $59bn tie-up.
The European Commission set a new deadline of February 28, according to a website filing yesterday — less than a week after saying it lacked “an important piece of information” about the deal.
Dow-DuPont, the first of a trio of mega-deals reshaping the agrichemicals industry, is embroiled in an extended probe by the EU over concerns that the combination may reduce competition for crop protection, seeds and some petrochemicals. The EU is separately examining China National Chemical Corp’s bid for Switzerland’s Syngenta.
“We have received the missing information and the clock has been re-started,” said Ricardo Cardoso, a spokesman for the Brussels-based EU authority.
The EU move was a re-run of a previous suspension that already held up the regulator’s Dow-DuPont probe by nearly a month. The extra delay led analysts at Sanford C Bernstein & Co to lower the probability of the deal closing from 85% to 75%.
Dow said November 4 that it always expected a “thorough review” and both companies are working with the EU and other regulatory agencies. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, the company said.
Dow chief executive officer Andrew Liveris said last month that the merger may be delayed until February from a planned closing late this year, as European antitrust officials take more time to consider potential competition issues in pesticides and crop seeds. Liveris said the value created by the deal made the wait worthwhile.
Regulators hit the pause button on their probe on October 13 and officials said last week that the clock would only restart once the data was supplied.
Dow representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has raised concerns that the agrichemicals industry is “quite concentrated already” and she’ll ensure that farmers have affordable prices and a choice of providers. EU lawmakers and environmental campaigners have been calling on her to block Bayer’s bid for Monsanto Co.
Regulators twice stopped the clock on their review of Halliburton Co’s bid to buy oil-services rival Baker Hughes earlier this year, saying they needed more information from the companies. The firms abandoned the deal in May as the companies struggled to overcome antitrust concerns from the US, the EU and other regulators.