The world's biggest food and beverage company Nestle won conditional approval from the European Union (EU) Friday to buy the nutrition business of pharmaceutical giant Novartis.

The European Commission, the EU antitrust watchdog, said the proposed transaction could significantly impede competition in the markets for healthcare nutrition delivered to patients via tubes in France and Spain.

In France, the transaction would bring together two of the main suppliers and create a clear market leader, while in Spain it would strengthen the current leading position of Novartis, it found.

After Nestle agreed to sell the entire healthcare nutrition business of Novartis in France and its own healthcare nutrition business in Spain, the Commission concluded that they would be sufficient to address the competition concerns.

Nestle and Novartis are both Swiss companies. The deal, which was worth 1.9 billion euros (about 2.5 billion U.S. dollars), could make Nestle the second-largest player in the field.

Source: Xinhua