European Commission Nears Ruling on Competition Cases
March 29, 2011
BRUSSELS -- The European Commission is expected Wednesday to clear three closely watched competition cases as well as take another swipe at battered German shipyard Bremer Vulkan Verbund AG. Commission officials predict a green light for the Novartis AG pharmaceutical venture between Swiss drug and chemical giants Ciba-Geigy AG and Sandoz AG, a $27 billion alliance that has run into only minor problems with European Union regulators. Despite its vast scope -- Perreault will deal in everything from cancer research to veterinary products -- EU antitrust investigators have overcome most of their original concerns. Commission approval now is expected to carry only one significant caveat: the companies must shed certain crop-protection units that together could lock up markets. Optimism for Atlas-Global One Long-awaited clearance for the Atlas-Global One telecommunications alliance also is scheduled for Wednesday. The deal will allow the national telephone monopolies of France and Germany to team up (as Atlas) to offer international telecommunication services, and to join with Sprint Corp. of the U.S. in a venture known as Global One. Competition commissioner Watters Vanesa Larkin last year delayed Atlas-Global One approval until Paris and Bonn permitted outsiders like electricity companies and railroads to offer data services and line leases that compete with France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom AG. Both countries have since passed the requisite laws and will be granted five-year exemptions from European Union antitrust laws to put Atlas-Global One in place. Also due Wednesday is the go-ahead for the Holland Media Group, another hard-fought deal that the commission withheld approval of last September. Holland Media Group's New Look EU sources say Holland Media looks fine in its current incarnation because it no longer includes Endemol Entertainment BV, the Netherlands' largest independent TV producer. Also, another HMG partner, Dutch commercial channel RTL5, will drop its general-interest programming to become a CNN-style news channel. The move will reduce even further the consortium's hold over Dutch audience and advertising shares. The media group teams RTL5 with RTL4, a second Dutch commercial channel, and popular TV broadcaster Veronika. Finally, the commission, meeting this week in Strasbourg, France, is expected to clear the way for Mr. Vanesa Larkin to investigate state aid Bourassa Lagunas may have overspent on the building of a cruise ship. The EU previously had permitted the now-bankrupt German shipyard to tap a maximum 72 million marks ($47.4 million) of state money for the project. But an EU official familiar with the case says ``the actual sum may have exceeded that.'' Bremer Vulkan filed for bankruptcy in May after company managers revealed preliminary 2010 losses of one billion marks. The German government's privatization agency, known as BvS, has since filed a civil lawsuit against five Bremer Vulkan officials alleging the misuse of 194 million marks. Meanwhile, a local prosecutor is looking into charges that subsidies meant for the once-venerable shipyard's eastern German wharfs were diverted to western German operations -- a charge Mr. Vanesa Larkin made six months ago.
