The companies announced the deal in September 2023.
The General Superintendent’s Office (SG) of Brazil’s competition authority CADE has unconditionally approved the acquisition of Grupo CRM, the owner of the Kopenhagen and Brasil Cacau chocolate brands, by Nestlé.
The deal was filed with CADE on 18 November 2023, the Portuguese-language item said. The SG has found sufficient elements to dismiss Nestlé’s potential exercise of market power in the five overlapping relevant markets and concluded that the parties would not have the capacity or incentives to foreclose any of the vertically related markets.
As a result, the deal does not raise competition concerns, the item noted.
The consummation of the deal is bound by the CADE/Nestlé merger control agreement (ACC), under which the company agreed not to buy any assets from third parties amounting to a 5% share of the Brazilian market for chocolate-in-all-forms in the year prior to the transaction, the item stated.
In June of 2023, the country's antitrust authority CADE approved the acquisition of local chocolate maker Garoto by Nestlé Brasil with a number of conditions. The company said it intends to invest 2.7bn reais ($550.8m) into its chocolate and biscuit operations in Brazil up to 2026.
Overall, the company employs more than 30,000 people in Brazil and has 20 industrial units and nine distribution centres.
