EU clears Ineos acquisition of BP acetate businesses

The European Commission has cleared Ineos' proposed acquisition of BP's Vinyl Acetate Monomer (VAM) and Ethyle Acetate (EtAc) units. The deal comprises 500,000 tpa production capacity at the Saltend manufacturing site near Hull, UK, along with the Teesside to Saltend Ethylene Pipeline (SEP). The transaction was reviewed under the EU's simplified merger review procedure, for cases the commission believes do not pose competition concerns.