IP/06/131
Brussels, 8th February 2006
Mergers: Commission approves MBDA’s acquisition of EADS Deutschland’s tactical missile activities The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of EADS Deutschland’s guided weapons activities by MBDA, a joint venture between defence contractors EADS (France/Germany), BAE Systems (UK) and Finmeccanica (Italy). As overlaps are limited and other large and capable players compete to supply military equipment, the Commission has concluded that the operation will not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.
EADS, BAE Systems (“BAES”) and Finmeccanica (“FNM”) are international manufacturers of defence and commercial aerospace systems. Their joint venture MBDA is a supplier of guided weapons and guided weapons systems (“GW/GWS”). The transaction consists of the acquisition of joint control by EADS, BAES and FNM, through the joint venture MBDA and its subsidiary LFK, over some businesses currently solely controlled by EADS through its wholly owned subsidiary EADS Deutschland. EADS Deutschland is transferring its VM and TDW businesses – in essence its German GW/GWS activities - to the joint venture MBDA.
There are few competitive overlaps between VM, TDW and MBDA for GW/GWS and related sub-systems. Whilst MBDA is a leading missile producer, the Commission’s market investigation confirmed that a sufficient number of viable competitors will continue to operate after the acquisition, both in the German market and worldwide. Moreover, the buyers on the market - defence ministries - are considered sufficiently powerful to counterbalance any attempted anti-competitive behaviour by the new entity and to maintain a procurement policy based on open competition between suppliers.
