European Commission clears merger of Renolit and Solvay

The European Commission’s competition authority has ordered Renolit to sell the PVC flexible technical foils business that it acquired when it bought Solvay’s industrial foils division (PRW.com 10 May 2005). The Commission said the merger of the two companies would lead to Renolit holding a very high share of the market for flexible PVC foils. As a remedy, Renolit has offered to divest Solvay’s two main production plants: Liancourt in France and part of the Enkhuizen site in the Netherlands. The two sites together employ about 300 staff.

Renolit is now seeking a “sustainable” divestment of the foils business, whose products are used in the manufacture of stationery products, self-adhesive tapes, packaging and cinema screens. Renolit chief executive Dr. Heinz Gдrtner said: “Proposing the remedies in question was a painful decision. Nevertheless the transaction is still serving Renolit’s strategic objections.”