EU Approves Dow Chemical-DuPont Merger

The European Union has approved the proposed merger of Dow Chemical and DuPont, saying that the companies' commitments to divest businesses have addressed its concerns, CNBC reported.

Both plan to join in a $62 billion deal and then break apart into three separate, publicly traded companies. The companies would focus on agriculture, material science, and the production and sale of specialty products.

As reported by CNBC, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said that the bloc's conditional approval ensures that the merger "does not reduce price competition for existing pesticides or innovation for safer and better products in the future."

In January, PCT reported that stockholders of both companies voted to approve all stockholder proposals necessary to complete the merger of equals transaction – a key milestone in the process to merge the two companies.