The Commission concluded that the deal “would not significantly impede effective competition in Italy or any other European Economic Area (EEA) countries”.
The acquisition would create a dairy company with an annual turnover of €14bn. For Lactalis, acquiring Parmalat could offer up big synergies as there is significant cross over in the Italian and European activities of the two companies.
In March 2011 Lactalis acquired a 28.97 per cent stake in Italian dairy group Parmalat and, on 23 May 2011, it launched a €2.60 a share bid to acquire the rest of the firm.