Germany’s competition watchdog has raised “serious doubts” over the railway merger between Siemens and Alstom, in another blow to a Franco-German deal seen as a watershed for EU industrial policy on China.
The intervention by the independent Bundeskartellamt, in a letter seen by the Financial Times, adds to a chorus of national competition authorities opposing a merger that has full political backing from the French and German governments.
Billed as a deal to create a European champion with the muscle to take on China’s CRRC, the world’s biggest trainmaker, the proposed Siemens-Alstom tie-up is now on the brink of being vetoed by Brussels for creating a virtual monopoly in some European markets.