LONDON (dpa-AFX) - The European Commission has Monday conditionally approved the proposed acquisition of Norway's Statoil Fuel & Retail Aviation (SFRA) by British energy giant BP plc (BP.L, BP_UN.TO, BP), saying it was in line with the EU merger regulation. The decision is conditional upon the divestment of certain of SFRA's activities.
The approval comes following BP's commitment to divest SFRA's activities at the four airports of Stockholm, Malmö, and Gothenburg in Sweden as well as Copenhagen in Denmark.
The EU concluded that the proposed deal, as modified by the commitments, would not raise competition concerns as the combined entities activities would not overlap in most of these locations following the divestitures.
The EU stated that the combining of the two large into-plane suppliers of aviation fuel at these airports, with activities overlapping, would have reduced the number of suppliers and led to price increases for airlines.
'These divestments would remove the entire overlap with regard to the supply of aviation fuel. Moreover, the divestments would allow the entry of an additional aviation fuel supplier at these four airports,' the EU said in a statement.
Alimentation Couche-Tard, Inc. (ANCUF, ATD_A.TO, ATD_B.TO) agreed is early September to sell all the issued and outstanding shares of its aviation fuel business SFRA to Air BP, a subsidiary of BP. The deal was then expected to be completed by the end of December 2014. The financial terms were not disclosed by the two companies.
SFR Aviation supplies aviation fuel products to airliners, general aviation, military and bulk customers in nine countries across Northern Europe. It is active in the into-plane supply of aviation fuel at 80 airports in the European Economic Area, with a focus on Scandinavian airports.
SFR Aviation employees will remain employed by the same legal entity as before the sale of the shares.
BP closed Monday's regular trading session at $34.94, down $1.30 or 3.59% on a volume of 16.11 million shares, while ATD-B.TO closed on the TSX at C$42.50, up C$1.66 or 4.06% on a volume of 2.78 million shares.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX