There is actually a question about the complete veracity of your statement. Recall that LCY lost a felony manslaughter case in Taiwan in April 2018. If I'm not mistaken, penalties included a hefty fine. In addition, it's not likely that Eno welcomed the notion of selling BioAmber to a company locked in a predicament LCY faced.
One theory is: This explains why KKR saw a favorable opening to finance the deal. Of course, there could have been other factors hovering over the deal in the summer of 2018, which re-opened the originally planned process to further considerations. Indeed, a two-step merger was not out of the question, wouldn't you agree?
Then consider the intervening death of the first primary judge and late Covid.
In short, Sir, I think the "deal" ultimately became much more complicated than your conclusion presupposes.
