Sonae Indústria’s German subsidiary Glunz AG has struck an agreement with the German Competition Authority to end an ongoing investigation into the wood-based boards market.
The deal could see Glunz paying a fine of up to €27.7m, payable in six annual instalments.
The settlement would become effective when the German Competition Authority makes a final decision in the investigation.
Glunz said it was surprised by conclusions reached by the competition authority, but reaching a settlement to close the investigation was “indispensible”.
However, Sonae regrets that Glunz will be subject to the penalty, “which will clearly make the challenge of assuring Glunz’s success in the medium and long term – to which Sonae Indústria is strongly committed – a more demanding one”.
Sonae has provided Glunz with considerable financial resources to help it achieve recovery, despite the fact that Glunz has not yet achieved positive results since its acquisition in 1998 (with the exception of one year).
“We will immediately reinforce the promotion and dissemination of the existing compliance initiatives within the Group, which shall be redesigned to ensure that all parts of our organisation, across all geographies have a deeper and more complete awareness of and a more rigorous respect for their legal obligations,” it added.
