Agri services group Origin Enterprises has completed its €15.6m (£14.2m) acquisition of Bunn Fertiliser, having received clearance from competition authorities to press ahead with the deal. Origin first announced its intention to acquire the fertiliser activities and certain assets of Bunn back in March.

However, by July, Origin announced that UK competition authorities were investigating the deal amid concerns it would reduce competition to supply fertilisers in Scotland. Origin moved to ease these concerns by proposing “specific undertakings” that helped avoid an in-depth investigation into the deal.

Bunn imports, blends and distributes almost 600,000t of fertiliser for the arable, grassland and horticultural sectors in the UK. The group recorded sales of more than €140m (£128m) for its 2016 financial year.

Origin has said that Bunn Fertiliser has “maintainable profits (EBIT) of circa £2.8m”, implying margins of 2.2%. This would imply that Origin paid 6.5 times’ earnings for this business.