Phase I : The European Commission grants conditional clearance to an acquisition project of the fifth largest metals and mining group (Glencore / Xstrata)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. The publication of this decision, almost two years old, has been delayed (8 April 2014). Admittedly the decision is not thin (123 pages) but that is not the main point. Indeed, the commitments offered by Glencore and accepted by the Commission were published much earlier (one year), and there are quantitatively more important decisions whose publication deadlines were "much shorter" (cf. the decision of 7 November 2012 COMP/M. 6471 Outokumpu v Inoxum of more than 300 pages). A combination of circumstances may explain this delay. Firstly, it should be remembered that this gigantic operation (over $8 billion has been talked about) mobilised several merger