On 26 May 2016, HeidelbergCement AG received Phase I approval from the European Commission to acquire Italian building materials group Italcementi S.p.A. In order to meet competition concerns within the EU HeidelbergCement agreed to divest certain parts of the group in Belgium, mainly comprising Italcementi’s Belgian subsidiary, Compagnie des Ciments Belges S.A. (CCB). The Commission generally only issues Phase I approval subject to simple conditions if the potential competition concern is clearly removed. The decision was made following an intensive prenotification process lasting several months.
The U.S. competition authority FTC has yet to decide on the matter. Gleiss Lutz was also involved in coordinating the relevant merger control proceedings in India, Canada, Kazakhstan and Morocco.
Gleiss Lutz’s competition/antitrust team included: Dr. Ulrich Denzel (partner, Stuttgart), Dr. Christian von Köckritz (counsel, Brussels), Dr. Philipp Pichler, Dr. Sebastian Sonn, Meike Linder, Susann Markert, Sven Haag (all Stuttgart), Dr. Harald Weiß (Brussels) and Daniela Mariotti (Munich).
Dr. Ingo Schaffernak (General Counsel), Dr. Norbert Boese (Senior Legal Counsel - Competition) and Gareth Day (Head Group Strategy Development) from HeidelbergCement’s legal department managed the global merger control proceedings on this transaction.
A Gleiss Lutz M&A team led by Dr. Martin Schockenhoff and Dr. Jochen Tyrolt (both Stuttgart) also assisted with corporate law issues. Gleiss Lutz regularly advises HeidelbergCement on a wide range of topics, including representation in other cartel cases and cartel-related claims for damages. Most recently Gleiss Lutz obtained a landmark judgment for HeidelbergCement before the European Court of Justice restricting investigative powers of the European Commission, and had a lengthy cartel case by the European Commission officially closed.
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