Novelis Inc., a US-based subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Ltd, said it has received the final clearance needed to complete its acquisition of Aleris Corporation after it sold a Belgium plant to clear anti-trust concerns.
“Novelis has completed the regulatory review process and is now prepared to close the acquisition and begin integrating Aleris into Novelis,” Steve Fisher, president and CEO at the company, said in a statement.
Novelis had first announced the deal to acquire Aleris in July 2018 for $2.6 billion. But the deal couldn’t be closed because of various challenges by US and European anti-trust authorities.
According to Novelis, the European Commission had previously determined that the acquisition could proceed on the condition that the company divest Aleris’s plant in Duffel, Belgium to a third party.
Novelis satisfied that condition when the European Commission determined that the proposed purchaser, Britain-based Sanjeev Gupta-led Liberty House Group, is a suitable buyer of the Duffel facility, the company said.
Liberty House, which is a part of the Gupta Family Group, intends to acquire the Duffel facility under its newly formed aluminium vertical called Alvance for €310 million ($338 million), the statement said.
With the European Commission’s approval of the buyer, Novelis has now received all regulatory clearances and will move expeditiously to close the acquisition of Aleris, the company said.
Last September, the US Department of Justice had sued Novelis to stop the deal because of concerns that it would give the company control over 60% of American’s aluminium capacity.
Novelis is based in Atlanta and recorded $12.3 billion in revenue for 2019.
