European Commission has cleared the sole control change at Metro Group

Haniel is already a large shareholder in Metro and intends to acquire control by way of a pooling arrangement with another shareholder, Schmidt-Ruthenbeck.

 The Commission concluded that the
transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in
the European Economic area (EEA) or in any substantial part of it.
The Commission's investigation found that the overlap of activities
between Haniel and Metro is small and concerns the sale of
professional clothing. Minor vertical relationships exist in the
field of textile and washroom hygiene services. The market shares of
the parties in these areas are small and many competitors are present
on these markets. The Commission therefore concluded that the
proposed transaction would not raise any competition concerns.

Haniel is a family owned business,
active worldwide in a variety of industries, in particular trading
raw materials for the steel industry, the production of construction
materials and the wholesale of pharmaceutical products, textile and
washroom hygiene services.
Schmidt-Ruthenbeck is a family owned
business which operates holiday hotels in Germany and Austria. It
also has activities in the field of digital image processing systems.