EU Approves Norway's Hydro, Sapa Soft Alloy Joint Venture

By Laurence Norman

BRUSSELS--European Union antitrust authorities Monday approved the creation of a joint venture between Norway's Norsk Hydro ASA (NHY.OS) and Sapa Holding AB, a subsidiary of Orkla ASA (ORK.OS), but set conditions on the plans.

The EU conditioned its approval of the joint venture on Sapa selling its multiport extrusions business in the Netherlands and Hydro selling its largest soft-alloy extrusions plant in Norway.

The joint venture would create the world's leading aluminum extrusions provider, with about 6 billion euros ($7.8 billion) in annual revenues, the EU's antitrust authority said in a statement.

"This case shows again that European merger control is able to both protect customers from price rises fueled by undue market power through effective remedies and allow companies to combine their forces to become industry leaders at the global level," said Joaquin Almunia, the EU's Competition Commissioner.

Write to Laurence Norman at [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires