Pork processor and meat products group Danish Crown has won the arbitration case that resulted from its cancelled merger with fellow Danish pork specialist Tican in 2015.

The two parties disagreed on whether the merger agreement expired or whether Danish Crown cancelled it.

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But an arbitration tribunal decided in Danish Crown’s favour and ruled that Tican was not entitled to DKK20m (US$3.8m) in compensation as a result of the collapsed deal.

In a statement following the tribunal’s ruling, Erik Bredholt, chairman of the board at Danish Crown, said: “Throughout the entire process, both parties have maintained a good and civil tone, and loyally described the process in connection with the merger. 

“We have now received the arbitration award, and both parties have to move on from here.”

Søren Overgaard, chairman of the board of Tican, said: “It has been one of those cases which neither party really wanted to have to go through. On the other hand it has been crucial for both parties to defend the interests of their respective owners, and therefore it was agreed early on in the merger negotiations that any disagreements should be decided by an arbitration tribunal.”

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Danish Crown and Tican said they both consider the case to be finally concluded and would not be commenting further on the award.  

The deal was called off in November 2015 – nine months after it was first announced – with Danish Crown saying said the application for the merger approval lapsed because it was unable to obtain approval with the competition authorities within the time limit.

The European Commission had earlier warned that the merger between then two could face problems because of Danish competition authority rules.

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