European Commission approves Rhodia's acquisition by Solvay

10-Aug-11

Solvay and Rhodia announced that the European Commission has approved the acquisition of Rhodia by Solvay. Following this approval, the French Financial Markets Authority AMF has set the closing date of the friendly public takeover bid on Wednesday 24 August 2011 (included). Solvay offers EUR 31.60 per Rhodia share and EUR 52.30 EUR for the OCEANE convertible bonds. As all prerequisite authorizations for the offer are obtained, the execution of the offer is solely subject now to a minimum acceptance level of 50% plus one share on a fully diluted basis. A notice with the final calendar of the Offer including the settlement date was published by NYSE Euronext Paris. SOLVAY is an international industrial Group active in Chemistry. It offers a broad range of products and solutions that contribute to improving quality of life. In 2010, its consolidated sales amounted to EUR 7.1 billion. European Commission gave its blessing to Belgian chemical giant Solvay's plans to acquire French competitor Rhodia in a Euro 3.4 bln (US$4.8 bln) deal, finding that it would not endanger competition. "The proposed transaction would neither significantly influence the structure of the relevant markets, nor affect the merged entity's incentive or ability to shut out competitors or customers," the EU's executive said in a statement. "Indeed, there will be a number of credible and significant competitors who will continue to exercise a competitive constraint on the merged entity in each of the relevant markets," it added. Solvay handles specialty polymers, soda ash and hydrogen peroxide. Rhodia focuses on specialty materials such as rare earths, along with consumer-market products and engineering plastics. The companies are expected to generate 12 billion euros in combined sales.