PARIS (Agefi-Dow Jones)–The European Commission authorized on Tuesday, subject to conditions, the acquisition of the company present in the multi-technical services sector Equans by the diversified industrial group Bouygues.
“To allay the Commission’s competition concerns, Bouygues has offered to divest the entirety of Colas Rail Belgium, including all current and future assets, personnel and contracts of its ‘rail contact line’ branches ‘ and ‘installation of railway tracks’,” the institution said.
“These commitments fully address all the competition concerns identified by the Commission,” Brussels concluded.
Bouygues announced in November 2021 the acquisition of Equans from the energy group Engie on the basis of a valuation of 7.1 billion euros.
UK CMA expresses concern
On Tuesday morning, the British competition authority, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA), for its part expressed its concerns about the takeover of Equans by Bouygues. In the UK, Bouygues and Equans are competing to supply catenary systems for high-speed railways, the CMA said in a statement. The two companies are in particular in competition for the contract on the high-speed line project HS2 (High speed 2), underlined the authority.
Insofar as the current call for tenders on HS2 is at an advanced stage and that Bouygues and Equans are among a small number of participants in this call for tenders, the CMA fears that the operation will make the rest of the less competitive bidding process.
-Vincent Alsuar, Agefi-Dow Jones; 01 41 27 47 39; [email protected] ed: ECH
(Julien Marion contributed to this article)
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July 19, 2022 10:31 ET (14:31 GMT)