EC directs Imerys to divest its La Bathie alumina operations

<p>Imerys S.A, the French multinational behemoth dealing in industrial mineral production and processing, will divest one of its newly purchased fused alumina operations in La Bathie in Savoie, France, reported sources familiar with the development. The move comes after the European Commission set out pre-conditions for the French industrial group for its planned takeover of Alteo's fused alumina assets in France.<br /><br />Alteo, the world's leading, fully-integrated supplier of specialty alumina, received an offer from Imerys last year July, for the acquisition of the companies ALTEO ARC and Alufin. Alteo ARC, at that time, was operating a white fused alumina plant in La Bathie in Savoie and a brown fused alumina plant in Beyr&egrave;de, France.<br /><br /><img style="vertical-align: middle; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.alcircle.com/uploads/images/AlteoAlumina.JPG" alt="News" width="517" height="226" /><br />Commenting on the proposed acquisition, Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Ram&eacute;, President of ALTEO group, had said, &ldquo;This project would allow Alteo, whose core business is to produce specialty aluminas in its Gardanne plant, to focus further on its strategic plan. This plan is based on the development of specialties sales, the continuous improvement of its operational performance and reduction of its environmental footprint. For La Bathie, Beyr&egrave;de and Teutschenthal plants, their integration within the Imerys group would provide them with great opportunities for further development.&rdquo;<br /><br />{googleAdsense}<br /><br />However, as per EC&rsquo;s directive, Imerys now needs to divest La Bathie fused alumina operations into an independent business so that it attains eligibility to buy alumina business assets from Alteo.</p>