DowDuPont wins U.S. approval

The U.S. Department of Justice has approved Dow Chemical’s merger with DuPont, marking the last major regulatory hurdle for the transaction, which is expected to be consummated in August. Like regulators in Europe, Brazil, and China, DOJ noted that the linkup as originally proposed would have been bad for competition in agricultural chemicals and packaging polymers. However, DOJ isn’t adding to the concessions already required by the European Commission. To satisfy the EC, DuPont is selling a large part of its crop protection business to FMC. Dow is selling its ethylene acrylic acid copolymers business to South Korea’s SK Global Chemical. Brazil and China asked for small local concessions in addition to the EC mandates.