BRUSSELS, Jan 13 — The EU today blocked the merger of two South Korean ship-making giants over concerns the deal would restrict the supply of large liquefied gas carriers, posing a threat to Europe’s energy security.
The veto of the tie up comes two years after Brussels stopped India’s Tata Steel and Germany’s Thyssenkrupp from merging, and three years after it blocked the merger of the train-making businesses of Siemens and Alstom, angering France and Germany. The EU found that the merged entities would create a group controlling nearly two-thirds of the global LNG cargo ship market and would have grown more dominant over time.
“European customers would be left with few alternatives to the merged entity, only a handful of competitors would remain in the market,” Vestager warned.