Commission clears Olam’s ADM cocoa business buy

10-Jun-2015 - Last updated on 11-Jun-2015 at 15:49 GMT

'No competition concerns,' says European Commission

The European Commission has given the green light for Olam to acquire ADM’s cocoa operations.

Singapore-based Olam reached a $1.3bn deal to acquire ADM’s cocoa business in December 2014 and the agreement has been passed by EU authorities.

“The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given the companies' moderate combined market positions and the presence of a number of strong players supplying beans and cocoa products in the European Economic Area (EEA),” said the Commission in a release.

ADM’s cocoa division has a cocoa processing capacity of 600,000 metric tons (MT) and will mean the Olam will now have a 700,000 MT capacity.

Olam will account for around 16% of cocoa processing globally, behind Cargill and the leading grinder Barry Callebaut.

The buy includes ADM’s processing facilities in Mississauga, Canada; Koog aan de Zaan and Wormer, the Netherlands; Mannheim, Germany; Ilhéus, Brazil; Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; Kumasi, Ghana; and Singapore; plus ADM buying stations in Brazil, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, and Indonesia, as well as the company’s deZaan and UNICAO brands.

The Commission is still assessing Cargill’s proposed acquisition of ADM’s industrial chocolate business.