The European Commission has granted regulatory clearance to the acquisition by Cargill Inc. of Agribrands International, a U.S.-based producer and marketer of animal feeds and other agricultural products. The all-American deal will not affect competition in Europe as the companies' activities are largely complementary. The European animal feed businesses of Cargill and Agribrands are largely complementary and only overlap in Spain and Portugal where the parties will have a combined market share of below 15%. The Commission also looked at the deal's impact on the market for oilseed meal, an upstream market for animal feed in which Cargill is the leading European producer with a EU-wide market share of over 25%. But its investigation showed that there are a number of important, internationally active competitors present in this market.
