An agreement between the two firms for the sale of the sites was announced in September 2013 pending a subsequent review of the deal by the OFT under section 71 of the Enterprise Act 2002 which was launched in November (see letsrecycle.com story).
OFT announced on Friday (March 7) that the deal had been cleared, following the conclusion of the three month inquiry, which sought to ensure that the acquisition did not breach competition law.
Scrap sites in Boreham, Coventry, Lenwade, Norwich and Sheffield are now to be operated by EMR, with around 100 SITA staff joining EMR as a result of the deal.
The full financial terms of the sale have not been revealed, although it is thought to be significantly less than the £90 million SITA paid for the Easco metal business it bought in 2007 which subsequently formed a major part of the SITA UK Metals operations.
SITA went to the High Court in October 2010 questioning some of the data behind the Easco acquisition, but the case was eventually settled without disclosure of what was agreed.
Review
The company approved the deal after carrying out a formal 45-day review of its metals recycling division, launched in July 2013 after what it had described as years of difficult trading conditions with no sign of improvement (see letsrecycle.com story). Following the start of the review, SITA ceased accepting metals at the gate across all of its scrap recycling sites.
The sale cements Warrington-based EMRs position as the largest metal recycler operating in the UK, with around 80 scrapyards nationwide. EMR currently employs over 3,500 staff, operating worldwide in countries including Germany, Switzerland, India, China and Thailand as well as the USA.
EMR declined to comment on the announcement when contacted by letsrecycle.com with a spokeswoman for the company stating that it had nothing new to add at this stage.
Register for free to comment