Siemens can now complete on a £1.74 billion buyout of British engineering firm Invensys Rail after receiving clearance by the European Commission.
Investigations by the Commission concluded that Siemens and Invensys Rail have “geographically complementary activities” and that the acquisition would not affect competition in the EU.
The Commission examined the impact the proposed acquisition would have on the markets for the sale of railway signalling projects and products for mainline railway and mass transit in the European Economic Area (EEA) as a whole and in specific Member States where Invensys Rail and Siemens are both active.
The deal can now go ahead after investigators decided that the new merged entity would continue to face competition from other strong competitors, including Alstom, Bombardier, Thales and Ansaldo.
Whilst no expert on either the subject of signalling technology or on the ins and outs of acquisitions and mergers, I find it sad that another British rail-based company has fallen into foreign hands. Siemens is one of those companies that has been rapidly expanding through takeovers and no doubt, the name Invensys will soon disappear and the “centre of excellence” at Chippenham will close with work transferred to Germany. We can only blame successive governments for failing to give any support to British companies following rail privatisation and, as a result, the industry is now dominated by European-based multinationals.