The Competition Bureau has settled a number of long-running merger reviews in recent months:

  • On November 4, 2009, the Competition Bureau announced that it had reached an agreement with Agrium Inc. to resolve competition concerns related to Agrium's proposed acquisition of CF Industries Holdings Inc. Under the terms of the Consent Agreement, if Agrium is successful in its bid, it will divest half of its nitrogen-based fertilizer production facility in Carseland, Alberta and will be required to supply additional product to Terra Industries, Inc., a new entrant into Western Canadian wholesale nitrogen fertilizer markets.
  • On October 29, 2009, the Competition Bureau approved the acquisition of Schering-Plough by Merck, subject to Merck's divestiture of its interest in the animal health company, Merial, to its joint venture partner, Sanofi-Aventis, as well as the divestiture by Schering-Plough of its new anti-nausea and anti-vomiting product (used in the treatment of post-chemotherapy and post-operative side effects), Rolapitant/i>, to Opko Health in both Canada and the United States.
  • On October 14, 2009, agreement was also reached with Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth as to the divestiture of several animal pharmaceutical and vaccine products to Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc., in both Canada and the United States. In Canada only, Pfizer also amended the terms of its existing arrangement with Paladin Labs Inc. governing the distribution and sale of Pfizer's human hormone replacement therapy product, Estring. (Members of the Stikeman Elliott competition group represented Wyeth in that transaction.)
  • Previously, on August 27, 2009, Ultramar Ltd. had been approved as the acquirer of terminal storage and distribution capacity required to be provided by Suncor Energy Inc. as part of a remedy addressing competition concerns raised by the Bureau over the merger of Suncor and Petro-Canada. The sale process for the 104 retail gas stations required to be divested in southern Ontario is still ongoing.

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