The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition of certain European, US and Brazilian assets belonging to the Ball Corporation and Rexam Plc by Ardagh S.A., of Luxembourg. Ball and Rexam is active in the production of beverage cans. Ardagh manufactures rigid packaging solutions for the food, beverage, and consumer products industries. The assets to be acquired located in the European Economic Area (EEA), mainly consist of ten beverage can manufacturing plants, two beverage can end manufacturing plants and certain support and innovation facilities in Germany and the UK. The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, because Ardagh is not active in the manufacturing of beverage cans, nor on related markets. In January 2016, Ball committed to divest these assets in order to gain the Commission's clearance for its project to acquire Rexam PLC. In a separate decision, the Commission also approved Ardagh as the purchaser of these assets. The purchaser approval also covers the terms of the sale. The asset sale 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 numbers M.8048 (asset sale) and M.7567 (buyer approval).
