Mexico City | Reuters — Mexico’s antitrust watchdog said Tuesday it has given approval to DuPont and Dow Chemical to merge on the condition that they sell certain crop protection products and other assets.
The asset sales required by Mexico’s Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) is similar to what U.S. antitrust enforcers asked of the two companies and similar to what the firms had agreed to give up in a deal they struck with European regulators in March.
Cofece said Dow needs to sell its acid copolymers and ionomers businesses. The products are used to make food packaging and other goods. It asked DuPont to sell an insecticide business.
Dow operates six subsidiaries in Mexico; DuPont has 11 subsidiaries there.
Dow and DuPont announced the deal in December 2015 in what was billed as an all-stock merger valued at US$130 billion.
— Reporting for Reuters by Anthony Esposito.
