Brazilian meat producers Minerva Foods and Marfrig Global Foods have received conditional approval from Brazil’s competition authority for Minerva to acquire a number of Marfrig’s assets – a decision that was first announced a year ago – according to Just Food.
According to Marfrig, the Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE) gave “approval of the transaction through the execution of a concentration control agreement, which requires a reduction in the material and geographic limits established in the expansion restriction clause set in the agreement, which will not alter the other terms and conditions set forth in the agreement and the transaction.”
Acquisition details
The 7.5 billion reais (USD1.3 billion) asset deal includes one distribution center and 11 plants in Brazil, one in Argentina, and one in Chile.
The deal originally included three plants in Uruguay, but the purchase was blocked in May by Uruguay’s anti-trust regulator, la Comisión de Promoción y Defensa de la Competencia, or Coprodec.
Conditional approval
While Brazil’s CADE has approved the acquisition – which includes the facilities in Argentina and Chile – the purchase cannot be finalized until additional conditions that prevent an anti-competitive market are met
When asked by Just Food what those conditions entailed, Minerva said, “in addition to the final and unappealable decision of CADE, the closing of the transaction is also subject to the verification of the other conditions precedent provided for in the agreement, which regulates the acquisition of assets in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.”
Marfrig declined to comment.
