The EU Commission clears a merger in the engineering sector addressing the issue of bidding markets and minority stakes (Siemens / VA Tech)

"Siemens/ VA Tech: A Case of Bidding Markets and Minority Stakes"* On 26 April 2006, the merger case M.3653 — Siemens/VA Tech was closed following the successful sale, after an auction process organised by Siemens, of VA Tech‘s hydro power business to Andritz, an Austrian engineering group. Siemens had already earlier fulfilled another undertaking in the case, the sale of its non-controlling minority stake in SMS Demag (‘SMS‘), a German metal plant engineering firm. Both Siemens and VA Tech, which is the largest Austrian-based industrial group, are active in a wide range of technology and engineering sectors. The companies supply major components for products such as power plants, trains, railway infrastructure, steel plants, electricity distribution systems, cable cars and others. The