1.   

On 12 June 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:

—	Pon Holdings B.V. (‘Pon’, the Netherlands), ultimately controlled by the private individual Mr. Wijnand Pon (the Netherlands).

—	Aurochs LuxCo (Luxembourg), ultimately controlled by CVC Capital Partners plc (‘CVC’, Luxembourg),

—	URUS Group LP (‘URUS’, United States of America), currently controlled by Pon.

Pon and CVC will acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) and 3(4) of the Merger Regulation joint control of the whole of URUS.

The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of shares.

2.   

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are the following:

—	Pon is a holding company active in the four different business clusters of automotive, bikes, equipment and power systems, as well as agricultural products and services,

—	CVC is a manager of investment funds with interests in a number of companies active in various industries globally.

3.   

The business activities of the undertaking URUS are the following: URUS is active in the agricultural sector, genetic solutions and retail.

4.   

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.

Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified treatment for certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in the Notice.

5.   

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.11579 – CVC / PON / URUS

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