Prior notification of a concentration

(Case M.11247 – INEOS / CERTAIN ASSETS OF TOTALENERGIES)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(C/2024/1596)

On 7 February 2024, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1).

This notification concerns the following undertakings:

—	Ineos AG (‘Ineos’, Switzerland),

—	Certain assets and contracts at the Lavéra petrochemical site, as well as parts of the connected East-Axis ethylene pipeline (the ‘Target’, France), most of which are currently operated jointly with TotalEnergies Petrochemicals France SA and TotalEnergies Petrochemicals & Refining SA.

Ineos will acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation sole control of the whole of the Target.

The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of shares, assets and contracts.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are the following:

—	Ineos is a global manufacturer of petrochemicals, speciality chemicals and other oil products,

—

The Target constitutes of the following manufacturing assets and contracts at the Lavéra petrochemical site: (i) ethylene steam cracker unit (Naphtachimie SA, ‘Naphtachimie’), (ii) an aromatics unit (GIE Pour l’Extraction des Aromatiques du Sud-Est, ‘Gexaro’), (iii) a polypropylene unit (Appryl SNC, ‘Appryl’), (iv) naphtha storage infrastructure (‘GIE 3TC’), and (v) certain related contracts, customer lists and inventory; as well as parts of the connected East-Axis ethylene pipeline.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. The following reference should always be specified:

M.11247 – INEOS / CERTAIN ASSETS OF TOTALENERGIES

Observations can be sent to the Commission by email or by post. Please use the contact details below:

Email: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu

Postal address:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Competition

Merger Registry

1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË

(1) OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘Merger Regulation’).