In the agricultural trading sector, the Bundeskartellamt has cleared the increase in the number of shares held by BAT Agrar GmbH in Rudolf Peters Landhandel GmbH & Co. KG and thus BAT’s acquisition of joint control.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “After a long and extensive assessment, we have no serious competition concerns about BAT’s plans to increase its number of shares in Rudolf Peters to the point of joint control. The parties’ strong market position in the distribution of plant protection products to farmers and in the purchase of grain in regional markets in the border region between Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is sufficiently constrained by strong competitors.”

Rudolf Peters is a private agricultural trading company which is active almost exclusively at the retail level with farmers. The company currently runs 21 business locations in Germany located in Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein.

BAT was formed in 2021 through the merger of the two privately run companies Beiselen Holding GmbH (Ulm) and ATR Beteiligungsgesellschaft GmbH (Ratzeburg). The company group is active at the agricultural product wholesale and retail level, operating 69 business locations across Germany.

The plans affect the markets for the purchase of grain and oil seeds from farmers and the sale of seeds, plant protection products, animal feeds and fertilisers to farmers. In terms of the geographic market affected, the activities of the two companies overlap mostly in the border region between Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which is why this region was the focus of the competitive assessment.

The market shares were found to be higher only in a few regional markets for the sale of plant protection products and for the purchase of grain. However, in addition to the parties involved there are still important competitors, namely HaGe Nord, Ceravis, the Ströh group and VR Plus. Having examined the transaction in detail, the Bundeskartellamt does not expect the merger to restrict the existing competition in the market. Consequently, it was possible to clear the project in the first phase of merger control.