FRANCE

EC approves Dassault acquisition of Thales shares

On March 10, the European Commission (EC) approved the proposed acquisition of Thales by France’s Dassault Aviation and the TSA holding company that is wholly-owned by the French State.

      TSA holds 26.56% of the shares in Thales. Dassault Aviation has bought the 20.8% share in the company that was previously held by Alcatel-Lucent, to which it has added the 5.16% financial stake in Thales owned by Group Industriel Marcel Dassault (GIMD), to give it a total shareholding of 25.96%. Dassault is currently manoeuvring to oust the long-serving Thales Chairman and CEO, Denis Ranque.

      The Commission said that its investigation “focused in particular on the space sector and the civil and military aviation sectors, where Dassault Aviation and Thales have a client-supplier relationship, and on the production of military flight simulators, where they cooperate.

     “Despite the sometimes large market shares involved, the investigation ruled out all risk of a distortion of competition that could result from a combination or vertical integration of activities by the parties, since credible alternative suppliers would remain on the European and world markets after the transaction.

     “The Commission’s investigation also confirmed that, because of the position of the French Ministry of Defence as the sole purchaser of military products in France, it would have a say in the process of selecting component manufacturers for these products, as a result of which the transaction would not limit access by Thales’s competitors to products manufactured by Dassault Aviation. Moreover, the selection processes for military component manufacturers form part of long-term programs which will not be affected by the proposed transaction.”