DOW Dow Inc

By Natalia Drozdiak 

BRUSSELS -- The European Union's antitrust authority on Monday said it had resumed its review into the proposed merger of Dow Chemical Co. and DuPont Co. after the parties submitted missing information demanded of them.

The European Commission set a new date of Feb. 6, 2017 to complete the investigation into the merger, though the deadline could still be extended. The companies have previously said they aim to close the deal before the end of this year.

The commission had halted the probe because of the missing information in September, a month after the EU opened an in-depth review into the merger on concerns the combination may reduce competition in crop protection, seeds and certain petrochemicals.

"The companies involved supplied the missing information and therefore the commission restarted the clock," a European Commission spokeswoman said.

"We remain focused on working with the European Commission toward closing the transaction by year-end 2016," a Dow spokeswoman said. "In the event that the commission utilizes the full allotted time, closing would be expected to occur in the early part of 2017."

The proposed merger, disclosed in December, would unite the two companies with a combined market capitalization of roughly $122 billion, before splitting into three separate companies. Dow and DuPont in July privately outlined concessions to EU authorities to address antitrust concerns in the bloc.

The EU's review into the Dow-DuPont deal comes as other rivals in the industry also plan to merge.

China National Chemical Corp.'s planned $43 billion takeover of Swiss seed giant Syngenta AG has been registered for review with the EU competition authorities, while rival Monsanto Co. recently agreed to sell itself to Bayer AG.

Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 04, 2016 02:49 ET (06:49 GMT)

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