CCI clears Mitsui-DuPont copper fungicide biz deal

The Dollar Business Bureau

Competition Commission of India (CCI) has given its approval to the acquisition of DuPont’s copper fungicide business by Kocide, a fully-owned arm of Japan-based Mitsui & Co Ltd.

Kocide LLC was established in July 2014 for the purpose of acquiring copper fungicide worldwide.

As per the combination document available with the CCI, the company does not have any business activities in India.

CCI, a government body responsible to prevent activities that have an adverse effect on competition in India, in a tweet, said that it has given its approval to the "acquisition of DuPont’s copper fungicide business by Mitsui and Kocide".

The regulator considered the copper fungicides market in India, as relevant for the deal.

Dupont, a US-based company, has considerable operations in India and caters to sectors such as agriculture, electronics, energy, healthcare and plastics, amongst others.

Mitsui is already involved in manufacturing and supplying copper hydroxide-based agrochemicals through Germany-based copper chemicals maker, Spiess Urania Chemicals GmbH. With the acquisition of the copper fungicide business from DuPont, Mitsui aims to further improve its competitive position in the agrochemical market in the world.

Copper fungicides are known to be the major bacterial and fungal disease management tools that have cupric hydroxide as the main ingredient. Copper fungicides have been approved for use in more than 75 countries across the world. These are mainly used for organically-growing fruits and vegetables.