Sigma-Aldrich Gets Antitrust Approval In Brazil For Acquisition By Merck KGaA

(RTTNews) - Sigma-Aldrich Corp. (SIAL) announced it has secured unconditional approval from Brazil's Council for Economic Defense or CADE, the final outstanding approval required for the planned acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich by Merck KGaA (MKGAY.PK) . This clearance, which will be effective after a waiting period of 15 days, follows recently received antitrust approvals from the competition authorities ofIsrael or IAA and South Korea (KFTC).

On September 22, 2014, Merck and Sigma-Aldrich announced they had entered into a definitive agreement under which Merck, will acquire Sigma-Aldrich for $17 billion -$140 cash per share.

With the aforementioned clearances now in hand, both companies continue to work toward a third-quarter 2015 completion of the Transaction. The closing of the Transaction is still subject to the Company's fulfillment of the commitments made to the European Commission (EC), following the EC's conditional approval of the transaction on June 15, 2015.

Pursuant to those commitments, Merck and Sigma-Aldrich have agreed to sell parts of Sigma-Aldrich's solvents and inorganics business in Europe. In order to provide sufficient time to fulfill those commitments, the term of the Merger Agreement dated September 22, 2014, has been extended.