© Thomson Reuters FILE PHOTO: Logo of Austrian oil and gas group OMV is seen at a gas station in Vienna
By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Czech group Agrofert is set to win unconditional EU antitrust approval for its purchase of the nitrogen business of Austrian energy group OMV’s unit Borealis, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday.
Borealis in June last year announced the deal to sell the business, which includes fertiliser, melamine and technical nitrogen, on the basis of an enterprise value of 810 million euros ($863.5 million).
Borealis is 75%-owned by energy group OMV and 25% by Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala. It finalised a turnaround programme in its fertiliser business two years ago.
The European Commission declined to comment. It is scheduled to issue a decision on the deal by March 13.
Agrofert has manufacturing facilities in Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic and is owned by Czech ex-premier and now opposition leader Andrej Babis. Neither it nor Borealis immediately replied to requests for comment.
($1 = 0.9381 euros)
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, additional reporting by Francois Murphy in Vienna and Jan Lopatka in Prague; editing by Louise Heavens and Barbara Lewis)