After first putting pale to its competitors in the race to acquire a majority stake in Germany’s Süd-Chemie (Munich; www.sued-chemie.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 17.02.2011 – Swiss speciality chemicals manufacturer Clariant (Muttenz; www.clariant.com) overcame the last remaining hurdle on 11 April, when the EC competition authorities cleared the transaction. The German group officially became part of Clariant on 21 April. The transaction was valued at about EUR 1.9 bn.

This means the Swiss group now holds 96.15% of all Süd-Chemie shares. In addition, Clariant said it would make a public offer to acquire the outstanding shares from the German group’s minority shareholders.