The sale of Spanish bakery Panrico to US investment fund Oaktree has been cleared by the European Commission.

Brussels decided to look into Oaktree’s bid to hold a majority stake in Panrico due to the fund’s ownership of packaging maker Nordenia. It looked into the “vertical relationship” between Panrico and Nordenia.

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However, the Commission said Nordenia had a low share of the upstream market for flexible packaging for bread and bakery products and ruled the deal would not affect competition.

“The merged entity would lack the ability to shout out competitors from supplies,” the Commission said today (19 December).

In a deal with banks to lower its debts, Panrico agreed for Oaktree to take its stake in the company from 25% to around 80%.

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