US Sugar Deal Pause Sought by DOJ Is Denied by Third Circuit

The Justice Department failed to convince the Third Circuit to pause the closing of US Sugar Corp.'s $315 million acquisition of rival Imperial Sugar prior to hearing the full appeal of a lower court decision that approved the deal.

The DOJ’s antitrust division filed suit to block the merger in 2021, alleging the deal would concentrate the sugar market in the southeastern United States.

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit’s Friday denial of the DOJ’s emergency injunction motion is the antitrust division’s latest procedural loss in a week-long attempt to pause the merger pending appeal.

The acquisition ...