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Siemens must fear for the merger of its Zugsparte with French rival Alstom to the largest European traffic technology company. The European Commission today raised concerns about the acquisition of Alstom by the Munich industrial group and announced a more in-depth investigation.
The merger of Siemens Alstom concerns in particular TGVs, such as the Alstom TGV and Siemens ICE. more than three times bigger than their biggest competitor. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager warned that this could increase train prices "that could ultimately hurt the millions of Europeans who use the railways on a daily or private basis."
-The French Association is a major industrial policy project of French President Emmanuel Macron. The fact that the European Commission still brakes at the first attempt is not surprising given the market power of both. Unusually, she rejects the argument of Siemens boss, Joe Kaeser, that the two European manufacturers should combine against the Chinese giant CRRC, which is more than twice as big as the two.
Alstom and Siemens Zug division realizes a turnover of 15.3 billion euros. "At this moment," observers of the Brussels competition consider it unlikely that new Chinese suppliers enter the rail and signaling market in Europe.
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In Europe, the CRRC has not been active in many offers This has been different in the United States. The Canadian bomber, with whom Siemens had also negotiated, described as correct the decision to thoroughly examine the merger. "In our opinion, the cartel distorts fair competition and allows a teammate to exploit his dominant position in signaling technology to slow down competition in the trains," said the chief counsel. of Bombardier, Daniel Desjardins
. to convince the Commission of its point of view or to propose concessions. Now, they both say they are convinced "that the proposed merger will bring substantial value to the mobility industry, to our customers and to the everyday users of our transportation solutions." As expected, the merger is expected to be completed by the middle of the year 2019.
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