Aventis settles United States methionine litigation.Aventis (Strasbourg, France) announced that an agreement has been reached to settle lawsuits pending in certain United States District Courts United States District Court In the U.S., any of the 94 trial courts of general jurisdiction in the federal judicial system. Each state, as well as the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, has at least one federal district court. alleging that Rhone-Poulenc Animal Nutrition, the former animal nutrition business of Aventis, and other companies engaged in concerted pricing practices in the market for the animal feed methionine methionine (mĕthī`ənēn), organic compound, one of the 20 amino acids commonly found in animal proteins. Only the L-stereoisomer appears in mammalian protein. in violation of federal antitrust laws antitrust laws n. acts adopted by Congress to outlaw or restrict business practices considered to be monopolistic or which restrain interstate commerce. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 declared illegal "every contract, combination.... . The plaintiffs are approximately 60 companies that had purchased methionine directly from Rhone-Poulenc Animal Nutrition and other defendants in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. from 1985-2000. The plaintiff companies had opted out of a class-action settlement that had been reached between the class plaintiffs and the defendants in 2002. The settlement agreement provides for payments from Aventis to the plaintiffs aggregating approximately $178 million. Aventis does not expect this settlement to affect its current earnings, as the amount had been previously provisioned. The cash outflow related to this settlement had been anticipated in the expected cash flow for 2003 related to the non-core businesses. On a full-year basis, the cash outflow related to anticipated non-core litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. settlements is expected to be more than offset by cash proceeds from divestitures of remaining non-core businesses. This settlement will resolve all remaining claims against Aventis and Rhone-Poulenc Animal Nutrition by direct purchasers of methionine in the United States that were subject to lawsuits pending in the United States. By settling, neither Aventis nor Rhone-Poulenc Animal Nutrition admitted any liability. The animal nutrition business formerly conducted by Rhone-Poulenc Animal Nutrition was sold to CVC Capital Partners CVC Capital Partners is a European private equity firm. CVC was founded in 1981 as the European private equity arm of Citigroup, but after a buyout in 1993 it is owned by its management. In 1999, CVC established CVC Asia Pacific, which is a joint venture with Citigroup. in 2002. Under the terms of the sale, Aventis agreed to retain liabilities relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc this matter. Aventis is dedicated to treating and preventing disease by discovering and developing innovative prescription drugs and human vaccines. In 2002, Aventis generated sales of euro 17.6 billion, invested euro 3.1 billion in research and development and employed approximately 71,000 people in its core business. Aventis www.aventis.com |
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