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IPIC Selling Unit For EU Approval Of MAN Deal

Abu Dhabi's IPIC will sell off a chemical unit to win EU approval for its purchase of German industrial services company MAN Ferrostaal AG, said European Union regulators.

BRUSSELS (AP) -- Abu Dhabi's IPIC will sell off a chemical unit to win EU approval for its purchase of German industrial services company MAN Ferrostaal AG, European Union regulators said Thursday.

The European Commission said the International Petroleum Investment Company, or IPIC, had promised to sell MAN Ferrostaal's minority stake in Eurotecnica SA, a company that makes melamine, a chemical ingredient used to make plastic and also used in the paper and car industries.

IPIC -- controlled by the emirate of Abu Dhabi -- agreed in October to buy 70 percent of MAN Ferrostaal from its parent company, truck maker MAN AG, which will keep the remaining 30 percent. Neither company would say how much IPIC paid for the stake.

IPIC already controls Europe's leading melamine producer AMI. EU antitrust officials said they were worried that IPIC's stake in supplier Eurotecnica could allow AMI damage rivals by refusing to license Eurotecnica's technology for making high-quality melamine.

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