From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
EU blocks Thyssenkrupp-Tata steel merger plan
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleThe EU’s powerful antitrust authority has blocked the merger of German industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp with Indian steel giant Tata, an expected veto that kills the deal.
“We prohibited the merger to avoid serious harm to European industrial customers and consumers,” EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager says in a statement.
The aim of the merger had been to create the second largest European steel company behind multinational giant ArcelorMittal and to join forces in the face of the surge of Chinese steel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is already under pressure over his involvement with SeaDrift, which has ties to ThyssenKrupp and plays a role in the high-profile Case 3000 investigation. That investigation has snared several close associates of Netanyahu, but not the premier himself, on suspicion that they received illicit funds as part of a massive graft scheme in the multi-billion-shekel state purchase of naval vessels and submarines from the German shipbuilder. Some have called it the largest suspected graft scandal in Israel’s history.
— with AFP
The Times of Israel Community.