The European Commission approved on Monday the acquisition of parts of Bayer’s crop-science business by fellow German chemical major BASF.
Bayer had agreed on 26 April to sell further pieces of its crop-science business to the tune of €1.7bn, with BASF having already agreed to acquire a €5.9bn remedy package of crop science business in October last year.
“Since BASF does not currently sell seeds or non-selective herbicides and has only recently started to develop a limited offering in digital agriculture, the Commission did not identify competition concerns with most parts of the transaction,” the EU’s executive body said on Monday.
However, the Commission said that it had concerns about reduced innovation competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) for the development of certain non-selective herbicides, while it was also concerned about potential competition for the production of nematicidal seed treatments.
As a result, BASF has committed to divesting one of its overlapping lines of research for the development of non-selective herbicides and a pipeline nematicidal seed treatment product with branded name Trunemco.
The 28-country bloc’s executive body added that it is still assessing whether BASF has the ability and incentives to run and develop the acquired businesses in order to replicate Bayer as an active competitor in the market, and whether the agreements between Bayer and BASF are in line with the commitments.
“The decision adopted today does not prejudge the outcome of that separate assessment,” it concluded.
By Niall Swan
Source: ICIS News
France has launched an offshore green hydrogen production platform at the country’s Port of Saint-Nazaire this week, along with its first offshore wind farm. The hydrogen plant, which its operators say is the world’s first facility of its type, coincides with the launch of another “first of its kind” facility in Sweden dedicated to storing hydrogen in an underground lined rock cavern (LRC).
The project sets up the Hydrogen Valley in Rome, the first industrial-scale technological hub for the development of the national supply chain for the production, transport, storage and use of hydrogen for the decarbonization of industrial processes and for sustainable mobility.
At first glance, hydrogen seems to be the perfect solution to our energy needs. It doesn’t produce any carbon dioxide when used. It can store energy for long periods of time. It doesn’t leave behind hazardous waste materials, like nuclear does. And it doesn’t require large swathes of land to be flooded, like hydroelectricity. Seems too good to be true. So…what’s the catch?
