The planned acquisition of Dutch waste management company AVR Afvalverwerking B.V. by a consortium led by Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, the group owned by Chinese billionaire Li Ka Shing, has been cleared by the Commission’s Competition Directorate-General. The EU authority stated on Monday that it had come to the conclusion that “the proposed acquisition would not raise competition concerns because of the very limited overlaps resulting from the proposed transaction”. The transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure.
The AVR take-over was announced at the end of June. The planned transaction is the second large acquisition in the environmental services industry initiated by the Cheung Kong group in 2013. In April, Cheung Kong Infrastructure acquired the waste management company Envirowaste in New Zealand.