Carpenter seeks majority sale of Recticel's UK arm to ease competition concerns

Recticel SA

28/09/2022 07:33

LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - U.S. mattress foam producer
Carpenter has proposed a partial sale of Recticel's UK arm to
secure regulatory approval for its merger with the Belgian
company, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in a
statement on Wednesday. 
    US-based Carpenter agreed to buy Belgian firm Recticel's
global engineered foams business in a 656 million euro ($627.6
million) deal announced in 2021. 
    "The firms accept that the merger could reduce competition
in the markets where we've raised concerns," Kip Meek,
Independent CMA Panel Chair, said in a statement.
    "This could lead to higher costs for UK manufacturers and
mean people may get a worse deal when buying beds and sofas, as
well as everyday items like kitchen sponges."
    The CMA said it will focus on assessing whether this partial
sale will fully replace the loss of competition arising from the
merger.
($1 = 1.0453 euros)
 (Reporting by Andres Gonzalez, editing by Sinead Cruise)
 ((andres.gonzalez@thomsonreuters.com; 0034 647 69 49 89;
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