Volkswagen has been cleared by the European Commission (EC) through the EU Merger Regulation for its proposed acquisition of commercial vehicles manufacturer MAN.
The Commission concluded the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) as the merged entity would continue to face strong competition from other well-established manufacturers.
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The EC examined the transaction’s impact on the supply of heavy trucks, buses, chassis and diesel engines. For heavy trucks the merged entity would become the number one supplier in Europe and market leader with high market shares in a number of national markets.
For buses the merged entity would become the second largest supplier in Europe and market leader in some sub-segments – city buses, intercity buses, coaches – in some member States.
However, the EC’s investigation showed European heavy truck and bus markets would still face strong competition from other manufacturers such as Daimler, Volvo, Iveco and DAF trucks and Daimler, Volvo, Iveco, Solaris and VDL in buses.
A statement from the EC noted: “The vast majority of competitors and customers confirmed to the Commission there have been no substantial changes in the heavy truck or bus markets since the Commission authorised a merger between MAN and Scania in 2006, although this merger never took place.”
As regards diesel engines, the merging parties are involved to a certain extent in the manufacture of engines for marine and industrial applications as well as engines for diesel energy generators.
The Commission’s investigation has shown the transaction would not give rise to competition concerns in the EEA for such markets, as for most of the time the products of the merging parties do not compete directly.
Moreover, the merged entity would continue to face competition from a number of other established manufacturers such as Caterpillar, Tognum, Volvo or Cummins.
