The competition body on Friday ratified the processing of vegetable oils և proteins (Lesieur, Puget) by French number one Avril for rice և grain processing, Soufflet Alimentaire, which continues to focus on vegetable processing.
«After a thorough examination of the foreclosure transaction, the Authority considered that the transaction was unlikely to harm competition, եց canceled the transaction without conditions.“, He said in a press release. «The transaction does not result in any overlap or vertical link between Avril’s operationsԵւ Soufflet’s subsidiary, these two operators, which specialize in processing, are at the same level of the production chain.
«Autorité, on the other hand, noted that the action led to the formation of conglomerate links between the product range and the brand portfolio.By April և Souflet. Their presence in two adjacent markets, the oil and artery markets, could actually allow the new organization toincrease its market power«. He does, howeverrule out any risk of conglomerate exposure that would be harmful to the consumer“Because this new formation”will have neither the incentive nor the opportunity to close the markets where the parties are accordingly present, forcing a related sale«.
This operator, in fact, will always faceExistence of buyers with significant bargaining power և significant competitors, some of whom also have a diverse supply of products.“, He emphasizes. The Avril Group, which aims to become a vegetable processing champion by 2030, announced in late May that it was planning to acquire Soufflet Alimentaire (178 million transactions per year), a subsidiary of the Soufflet family business.
The latter, in particular, in the trade of grain products, was absorbed in December 2021 by the French Union of Cooperatives InVivo, giving birth to the heavy weight of European agriculture. InVivo immediately announced its intention to sell Soufflet Alimentaire to Avril Group, another agri-food giant with annual sales of € 6.8 billion. Then the two companies entered into exclusive negotiations.
Source: Le Figaro

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