9.2.2013   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 37/35

Prior notification of a concentration

(Case COMP/M.6807 — Mercuria Energy Asset Management/Sinomart KTS Development/Vesta Terminals)

(Text with EEA relevance)

2013/C 37/11

1.

On 31 January 2013, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertakings Mercuria Energy Group Limited (‘Mercuria’, Cyprus) and China Petrochemical Corporation (‘Sinopec’, China) acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation joint control over the undertaking Vesta Terminal B.V. (‘Vesta’, The Netherlands), by way of purchase of shares. Vesta is currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mercuria.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—

for Mercuria: holding company of an international group operating in a wide spectrum of the global energy markets. Mercuria's core activities are in the trading of energy products, including crude oil and refined petroleum products, natural gas (including LNG), power, coal, biodiesel, vegetable oils and carbon emissions,

—

for Sinopec: Chinese State-owned entity. Its main business activities are domestic (i.e in China) oil and gas exploration, development and production; domestic crude oil refining; the marketing and distribution of refined oil products in China; domestic production and sale of petrochemical products and oil; and domestic petrochemical engineering technical services,

—

for Vesta: active in the storage of petroleum products and biodiesel at terminal located at the three ports in Europe, namely Antwerp (Belgium), Flushing (Vlissingen, The Netherlands) and Muuga (Estonia).

3.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope the EC Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.

4.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by e-mail to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference number COMP/M.6807 — Mercuria Energy Asset Management/Sinomart KTS Development/Vesta Terminals, to the following address:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Competition

Merger Registry

J-70

1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË

(1)  OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘EC Merger Regulation’).