The European Comission This Monday he gave his approval to the French group Thales to sell its railway signaling business to Japan’s Hitachi Rail after the latter committed to divestments in France and in Germanythe institution reported in a statement.
The Spanish CAF was at the time a candidate to acquire these activities, as was the Swiss Stadler Rail, which finally withdrew from the bid.
The Community Executive explained that the transaction, valued at around 1.7 billion euros, raised competition problems as it had originally been notified, since “would have reduced competition and led to higher prices and less innovation in the markets for land signaling projects in France and Germany.”
“In these markets, the transaction would have combined two close competitors and the merged entity would have acquired very high market shares”emphasize the community authorities.
Hitachi Rail offered to divest its railway signaling activities in these two countries and Brussels considers that this commitment “fully addresses competition issues” that he had detected, since “preserve competition by eliminating horizontal overlaps” of both firms in France and Germany.
Furthermore, the European Commission, which “will watch” the divestment process committed, considers that this sale of Thales’ railway signaling business will allow a potential buyer to manage the business as a “viable competitive force” in a way “durable”.
The operation was endorsed at the beginning of the month by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of the United Kingdom once Thales also committed to divest its signaling area in the United Kingdom.
Source: Gestion
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