The Walloon industrial group John Cockerill indicated, Monday January 15, its desire to very quickly conclude the takeover of Arquus, a partner for more than a century of the French army, of which it is the leading supplier of wheeled vehicles. Formerly Renault Trucks Defense, this company is currently owned by Volvo Group, with which the Belgian company is conducting exclusive negotiations. The amount of the buyout was to be around 300 million euros.
Resulting from the merger, in 2018, of the activities of the companies Renault Trucks Defense, Panhard and Acmat, Arquus has five sites in France and employs some 1,500 people. Owned by a Frenchman, Bernard Serin, the John Cockerill group has some 6,000 employees.
In his communication, John Cockerill did not mention possible repercussions on employment, but indicated that, once completed, the merger should make it possible to achieve an annual turnover of 1 billion euros and mobilize 2,000 people by 2026, without “rationalization”. The production of future vehicles “will not be to the detriment of the French base at Arquus”specified, in the economic daily The Echo, François Michel, the executive director of John Cockerill. He speaks of“a rapprochement which aims to better develop on both sides”.
A “conquering Belgium”
Present in twenty-four countries, including France, where it has two production units in Moselle, the Belgian company took up the name of the Belgian-British pioneer of the Walloon steel industry but abandoned steel production in 2002 to diversify into energy, mobility, security and defense. The latter department currently produces turrets for light and medium armored vehicles, firing systems and simulation devices.
Completed successfully, the takeover operation should enable the joint manufacturing of high-performance light tanks capable, among other things, of effectively combating drones. With a dual objective: to increase sales to European armies, but also to emerging countries wishing to reduce their dependence on Russia, which is currently the main supplier of this type of vehicle. John Cockerill notably has operational bases in India and Saudi Arabia, and hopes to compensate for Arquus’ loss of market share in Africa.
The Echo enthused Tuesday January 16, his editorial evoking an operation ” extraordinary “marking, according to the economic journal, the return of a “Conquering Belgium”. A first attempt to take over Arquus failed in 2017, without knowing precisely whether it was an insufficient financial offer or a veto from the Ministry of Defense in Paris that made it impossible.
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