Reuters reported that Australia's competition watchdog has said it would not oppose commodities trader Glencore's AUD 26 billion takeover of miner Xstrata.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission weighed the impact of the proposed bid on Australian and global markets for coal, copper, nickel, cobalt and zinc and concluded the acquisition was unlikely to give the merged group too much market power.
The Commission said that "The ACCC did not consider that there was a likelihood of anti-competitive effects arising from the vertical integration of Xstrata's mining and production activities with Glencore's extensive third-party trading activities.”

The deal, which had been due to go to shareholders for votes in mid-July, has been delayed as Xstrata shareholder Qatar is pushing for better terms.

Source - Thomson Reuters

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