CELEX: 32020M9693
Language: en
Date: 2020-01-20 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 20/01/2020 declaring a concentration to be compatible with the common market (Case No COMP/M.9693 - LIBERTY / ALERIS DIVESTMENT BUSINESS) according to Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (Only the English text is authentic)

EUROPEAN COMMISSION
                                                                Brussels, 20.1.2020
                                                                C(2020) 389 final
                                                                                PUBLIC VERSION
                                                                To the notifying party
Subject:        Case M.9693 – LIBERTY / ALERIS DIVESTMENT BUSINESS
                Commission decision pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of Council Regulation
                                       1
                (EC) No 139/2004 and Article 57 of the Agreement on the European
                                    2
                Economic Area
Dear Sir or Madam,
1.      On 4 December 2019, the European Commission received notification of a proposed
        concentration pursuant to Article 4 of the Merger Regulation by which the
        undertaking Liberty House Group Pte. Ltd (‘Liberty’, Singapore) acquires within the
        meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation sole control over the automotive
        body sheets business, as well as other flat rolled products business, located at Aleris
        Corporation’s production plant in Duffel (Belgium) (‘Aleris Divestment Business’,
        Belgium), currently wholly owned by the undertaking Aleris Corporation (USA), by
        way of purchase of shares.3
2.      The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:
             − for Liberty: metals recycling, manufacture of steel, aluminium and engineering
                 products;
             − for Aleris Divestment Business: manufacture and sale of aluminium flat-rolled
                 products, including in particular aluminium automotive body sheets,
                 aluminium sheet for heat exchangers and standard aluminium flat rolled
                 products.
1       OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘Merger Regulation’). With effect from 1 December 2009, the Treaty on
        the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) has introduced certain changes, such as the
        replacement of ‘Community’ by ‘Union’ and ‘common market’ by ‘internal market’. The terminology
        of the TFEU will be used throughout this decision.
2       OJ L 1, 3.1.1994, p. 3 (the ‘EEA Agreement’).
3       Publication in the Official Journal of the European Union No C 420, 13.12.2019, p. 26.
Commission européenne, DG COMP MERGER REGISTRY, 1049 Bruxelles, BELGIQUE
Europese Commissie, DG COMP MERGER REGISTRY, 1049 Brussel, BELGIË
Tel: +32 229-91111. Fax: +32 229-64301. E-mail: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu.
 ---pagebreak--- 3. After examination of the notification, the European Commission has concluded that
   the notified operation falls within the scope of the Merger Regulation and of
   paragraph 5(c) of the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of
   certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004.4
4. For the reasons set out in the Notice on a simplified procedure, the European
   Commission has decided not to oppose the notified operation and to declare it
   compatible with the internal market and with the EEA Agreement. This decision is
   adopted in application of Article 6(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation and Article 57 of
   the EEA Agreement. This decision is adopted without prejudice to the ongoing
   assessment of Liberty as a suitable purchaser of Aleris Divestment Business following
   the final commitments submitted by Novelis Inc. to the Commission in case M.9076 –
   Novelis/Aleris.
                                                  For the Commission
                                                  (Signed)
                                                  Olivier GUERSENT
                                                  Director-General
4  OJ C 366, 14.12.2013, p. 5.
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