The Autorité de la concurrence clears the acquisition of sole control of Axéréal Elevage by the Avril group

Parties to the transaction

The Avril group is an international agro-industrial operator mainly active in the animal nutrition sector, both upstream, with its oilseed crushing activities (production of vegetable oils and oil cakes) and downstream, with the production and marketing of complete feeds and complementary feeds for livestock via Sanders. The group is also active in the production of live animals to be slaughtered and sold to abattoirs.

Axéréal Élevage mainly operates nine complete livestock feed production plants, most of them located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Centre-Val de Loire regions. It produces and collects live poultry for slaughter and is currently owned by the Axéréal agrifood cooperative group.

The Autorité ruled out any risk of harm to competition from the transaction in the markets concerned

The Autorité considered that the transaction was not likely to affect competition through either horizontal or vertical effects.

Following a careful examination, during which the Autorité consulted the competitors and customers of the parties, the Autorité did not identify any anticompetitive risks in the main markets in which the parties compete, namely the markets for the production and marketing of complete livestock feeds, on the one hand, and the markets for the collection of live poultry for slaughter, on the other.

The Autorité also examined the market for the production and marketing of oil cakes for possible vertical effects in the context of the transaction, given the presence of the Avril group on the market. Any risk of foreclosure of access to customers or inputs was ruled out.

The Autorité therefore cleared the transaction without conditions.