1.   

On 15 December 2020, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1).

This notification concerns the following undertakings:

—	Vitol Holding B.V. (‘Vitol’, the Netherlands), belonging to the Vitol group,

—	Drax Generation Enerprise Limited (‘Drax Generation’, the United Kingdom), belonging to Drax Group plc.

Vitol acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation sole control of the whole of Drax Generation.

The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of shares.

2.   

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—	for Vitol: an energy and commodities trading company which trades and distributes energy products globally, and which generates electricity at one plant in the United Kingdom,

—	for Drax Generation: an electricity generation and wholesale supply company that owns and operates four combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants in the United Kingdom.

3.   

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

Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under the Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in the Notice.

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. The following reference should always be specified:

M.10073 — Vitol/Drax Generation

Observations can be sent to the Commission by email, by fax, or by post. Please use the contact details below:

Email: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu

Fax +32 22964301

Postal address:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Competition

Merger Registry

1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË