China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) and Swiss agricultural giant Syngenta AG have formally submitted remedies to the European Union's competition watchdog in a latest bid to win regulatory approval for their $43 billion merger agreement.

Both companies submitted their "commitments" on Jan. 9, according to information on the EU competition regulator's website. As per analysts, the word "commitments" typically means that both parties may have proposed a wide range of solutions to allay the concerns of regulator.

Like Us on Facebook

The regulators will now take a final call on the merger before April 12.

Both ChemChina and Syngenta have refused to divulge any information on "submitted remedies."

"Details of the remedy proposals are confidential," a spokesman for state-owned ChemChina told Reuters.

The EU's regulatory body refused to give a nod to the takeover deal in October, arguing that the merger would give both companies unfair competitive advantage in the European market.

The regulators were especially sceptical about Israeli-based firm Adama Agricultural Solutions, which is the subsidiary company of ChemChina. It claimed that Adama Agricultural and Syngenta had "strong overlapping portfolios" in various products that gave rise to unfair competitive scenario.

Some analysts have proposed that the Chinese state-owned Chemical giant must fully divest Adama in order to assuage the concerns of EU regulatory body.

The EU's blockade last year came as a huge setback for Chemical's global ambition, which was planning to get foothold in several overseas markets through takeover of Syngenta. The successful takeover would have also paved the way for China's biggest foreign direct investment till date.

For most industry experts, EU's red flag over ChemChina-Syngenta deal came as a huge surprise, especially considering that the $43 billion dollar merger deal got regulatory approvals in the US and Australia.

TagsChemChina, syngenta, ChemChina Syngenta Deal, EU antitrust, china, EU Watchdog