By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Anglo American’s $500 million sale of its Brazilian nickel assets to a unit of Hong Kong-listed MMG faces an EU antitrust investigation after regulators rejected the companies’ proposed remedies, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
The companies had offered to buy ferronickel from MMG for resale in Europe for up to 10 years to ease concerns that the deal could cut off some of the supply of the metal for customers in Europe amid global concerns about the supply of key minerals under China’s influence.
The European Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, has not asked for feedback from rivals and customers regarding the proposed remedy, one of the sources said.
The EU executive, which is scheduled to finish its preliminary review of the deal on November 4, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The companies said in a joint statement that they continue to work with the Commission to secure its approval for the deal.
“This includes the measures that we have recently put forward to ensure continued access to sustainable produced cupronickel, which we believe presents them the most positive outcome for customers,” they said.
“We believe that European customers would support Anglo American’s ongoing role as a marketer of cupronickel, while supply competition in Europe would also increase with the addition of MM as a new supplier,” they added.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee;Editing by Ros Russell and Elaine Hardcastle)
