European Commission deals final blow to Siemens-Alstom merger
Competition commissioner vetoes tie-up on monopoly concerns
Brussels — Siemens and Alstom suffered the final blow to their rail merger plans after EU antitrust regulators refused to cave into warnings about the looming threat of Chinese competition. EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager formally vetoed the tie-up, saying the companies "were not willing to address our serious competition concerns" about the combined firm’s control over rail signalling systems and high-speed trains. The decision is a victory for Vestager, who came under intense pressure from French and German ministers demanding the creation of a European “champion” able to meet head-on competition from China. The tie-up — unveiled in September 2017 — would have merged Siemens’s mobility unit and Alstom to create an entity with about €15bn in revenue. “We’re not supposed to be political,” Vestager told reporters in Brussels. “We’re not supposed to say, lean to one side, or the other side, we’re supposed to look at the facts of the case. But we have a very, very clear ...
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