BRUSSELS, July 4 (Reuters) - The following are mergers underreview by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EUmerger process:
APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS
-- UK packaging maker RPC Group to acquire BritishPolythene Industries (approved July 1)
-- French conglomerate Bouygues, French airportdeveloper Aeroports de Paris and infrastructure project investorMeridiam to acquire joint control of Ravinala Airports whichwill develop and maintain airports in Madagascar (approved July1)
NEW LISTINGS
None
EXTENSIONS AND OTHER CHANGES
None
FIRST-STAGE REVIEWS BY DEADLINE
JULY 7
-- Spanish bank Banco Santander to acquire some ofPortuguese lende Banif's assets (notified June 2/deadline July7)
JULY 11
-- French company Plastic Omnium to acquire Frenchcar parts maker Faurecia's auto exteriors business(notified May 23/deadline extended to July 11 from June 27 afterOmnium offered concessions)
JULY 13
-- German company Boehringer Ingelheim to acquire Frenchpharmaceutical company Sanofi's animal health buisness(notified June 8/deadline July 13)
JULY 14
-- Spanish online bank Bancopopular-e, which is 49 percentowned by Banco Popular Espanol, to acquire UK lenderBarclays' consumer payments business in Portugal andSpain (notified June 9/deadline July 14/simplified)
JULY 15
-- U.S. company Verizon Communications and U.S.publisher Hearst Corp to jointly acquire U.s. digital mediacompany Complex (notified June 10/deadline July 15/simplified)
-- Private equity firm PIA Partners-owned R&R Ice Cream andNestle to set up a joint venture to sell ice cream andfrozen food (notified June 10/deadline July 15)
-- Polish investment company Kulczyk Holding S.A. andconstruction company Strabag Sp. z.o.o., which is a unit ofAustrian construction group Strabag SE, to set up ajoint venture (notified June 10/deadline July 15/simplified)
JULY 19
-- British mobile telephony operator Vodafone andU.S. cable company Liberty Global to merge their Dutchoperations (notified June 14/deadline July 19)
-- Dutch investment company NPM Capital and Thijs HendrixBeheer B.V. to jointly acquire animal and fish breeder HendrixGenetics, which is now controlled by Thijs Hendrix Beheer(notified June 14/deadline July 19/simplified)
JULY 20
-- U.S. generic drugmaker Mylan to acquire Swedishpeer Meda (notified June 1/deadline extended to July20 from July 6 after Mylan offered concessions)
-- U.S. private equity firm AEA to acquire Danish freightforwarder Scan Global Logistics (notified June 15/deadline July20/simplified)
-- Private investor firms Partners Group and InfraredCapital Partners to jointly acquire Merkur Offshore (notifiedJune 15/deadline July 20/simplified)
-- French drugmaker Sanofi to acquire Germanycompany Boehringer Ingelheim's consumer healthcare business(notified June 15/deadline July 20)
JULY 22
-- Spanish online bank Bancopopular-e, which is 49-percentowned by Banco Popular Espanol, to acquire Portugueselender Banco Popular Portugal's payment cards' buisness(notified June 16/deadline July 22/simplified)
-- Private investment company Maxburg Investments II GmbH &Co and VR Equity Partner to jointly acquire German fabricproducer Norafin Verwaltungs GmbH (notified June 16/deadlineJuly 22/simplified)
-- Investment bank Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank to jointly acquire some assets from National Bank ofGreece (notified June 16/deadline July 22/simplified)
JULY 25
-- French oil and gas producer Total to acquiresole control of French industrial battery maker Saft Groupe S.A. (notified June 17/deadline July 25/simplified)
-- Finnish crane maker Konecranes to acquire U.S.crane maker Terex's cranes business for ports andfactories (MHPS) (deadline June 17/deadline July 25)
-- U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus andFrench investment firm Wendel to set up a jointventure (notified June 17/deadline July 25/simplified)
JULY 26
-- Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp andJapanese marketing company MonotaRO Co to set up an Indonesianjoint venture (notified June 20/deadline July 26/simplified)
-- Czech energy group Energeticky a prumyslovy holding, a.s(EPH) to acquire Italian utility Enel's Slovakiancompany Slovenske elektrarne a.s (notified June 20/deadline July26)
JULY 27
-- Investment firms IK and Five Arrows Managers to jointlyacquire French real estate intermediary I@D (notified June21/deadline July 27/simplified)
-- Novy Invest, BNP Paribas Fortis, Sofindev IV and DHAM NVto jointly acquire kitchen appliances makerNovy International(notified June 21/deadline July 27/simplified)
JULY 28
- U.S. chemicals company Dow Chemical to merge withDuPont (notified June 22/deadline July 28)
JULY 29
-- Jones Lang LaSalle to acquire UK management servicesprovider Integral UK Holding (notified June 23/deadline July29/simplified)
-- General Motors France and French car retailerGroupe Dubreuil Claro to set up a joint venture (notified June23/July 29/simplified)
AUG 1
-- Sony Corp to buy out the Michael Jacksonestate's stake in its music publishing joint venture (notifiedJune 24/deadline Aug. 1)
-- Private equity firm Thoma Bravo to acquire businessintelligence software company Qlik Technologies (notified June 24/deadline Aug. 1/simplified)
AUG 2
-- Italian refinery Raffineria di Milazzo S.C.p.A., which isjointly controlled by Italian oil producer Eni S.p.A. and Kuwait Petroleum Italia S.p.A., to joint Italian thermalpower plant Termica Milazzo from Italian energy group EdisonS.p.A. (notified June 27/dateline Aug. 2/simplified)
-- Chinese gaming group Tencent Holdings Ltd toacquire Finnish mobile game maker Supercell from JapaneseInternet and telecoms group SoftBank Group (notifiedJune 27/deadline Aug. 2/simplified)
AUG 4
-- Australian investment bank Macquarie and SwissLife Group to acquire joint control of Italian transmissionsystem operator Societa Gasdoti Italia S.p.A. (notified June29/deadline Aug. 4/simplified)
-- Swedish carmaker Volvo to acquire jointcontrol of financial services provider Volvofinans Bank(notified June 29/deadline Aug. 4/simplified)
AUG 10
-- Airbus Safran Launchers, a 50/50 joint venture betweenAirbus and Safran, to acquire sole control ofsatellite group Arianespace (notified on Jan. 8/deadlineextended to Aug. 10 from July 27/concessions offered May 4)
SEPT 8
-- CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd and Vimpelcom to merge their Italian mobile operations (notified Feb.5/deadline extended to Sept. 8 from Aug 18)
OCT 18
-- U.S. rail equipment maker Wabtec Corp to acquireFrench peer Faiveley Transport SA (notified April4/deadline extended for the second time to Oct 18 from Sept. 20)
SUSPENDED
-- SOCAR, Azerbaijan's state energy company, to buy stakesin Greek natural gas grid operator DESFA from Greek natural gasutility DEPA (notified Oct. 1/deadline suspended on Jan. 21
GUIDE TO EU MERGER PROCESS
DEADLINES:
The European Commission has 25 working days after a deal is filed for a first-stage review. It may extend that by 10 workingdays to 35 working days, to consider either a company's proposedremedies or an EU member state's request to handle the case.
Most mergers win approval but occasionally the Commissionopens a detailed second-stage investigation for up to 90additional working days, which it may extend to 105 workingdays.
SIMPLIFIED:
Under the simplified procedure, the Commission announces theclearance of uncontroversial first-stage mergers without givingany reason for its decision. Cases may be reclassified asnon-simplified - that is, ordinary first-stage reviews - untilthey are approved. (Compiled by Foo Yun Chee)
