GE wins EU approval to buy Alstom's power unit

[BRUSSELS] General Electric won European Union antitrust clearance on Tuesday to buy Alstom's power unit, its largest ever takeover, after agreeing to sell some of the French company's assets to Ansaldo Energia.

The European Commission said the concessions allayed its earlier concerns that the 12.4-billion-euro (US$13.9 billion) deal would reduce competition to just two players, namely the merged company and Germany's Siemens.

GE will divest Alstom's large turbine product line and the technology it is developing for very large turbines to Ansaldo, which is 40 per cent owned by Italian state-backed investment fund Fondo Strategico Italiano and another 40 per cent by China's Shanghai Electric.

The US conglomerate will also sell Alstom's service contracts for 34 installed turbines and its US-based subsidiary Power System Manufacturing to Ansaldo.

Reuters reported on Aug 14 that the deal would be approved with conditions.

REUTERS