The French train manufacturer Alstom has not yet met all the conditions of the European Commission more than seven months after completing its acquisition of the Canadian train builder Bombardier. For example, Alstom was required to (partially) divest its workshop in Berlin, but despite the July 31 deadline, this has not yet happened.
Alstom has been negotiating for months with the Czech company Skoda Transportation regarding this, but the talks are becoming increasingly difficult. Alstom director Henri Poupart-Lafarge said last month at the shareholders' meeting that such processes are “long and complicated,” but offered no further details.
It is suspected that Alstom is using the continued operation of the Henningsdorf facility as a “bait” to secure a large German order. Last month, the director advocated for “new investments at this location.” In doing so, he hinted that much will depend on the tender for new rolling stock for the Berlin S-Bahn, according to Der Tagesspiegel.
A French consortium of Alstom and Transdev is competing with Deutsche Bahn, which is partnering with Siemens and Stadler, for the contract to provide new rolling stock for the elevated rapid tram S-Bahn in the German capital. The German government wants to keep the employment from this multi-billion euro contract within the country. To accommodate this, Alstom apparently wants to keep Hennigsdorf open.
Siemens and Alstom engaged in intensive negotiations for several years over a possible merger of their German and French train industries. Those discussions ultimately failed due to concerns from EU competition authorities about the emergence of overly dominant market players. As a result, Alstom chose to acquire the Canadian train builder.
Meanwhile, there is increasing demand in Europe to allow large mergers, even if they create dominant competitors over smaller industry peers. Calls for a European industrial policy are becoming more urgent. The EU must ensure that their industries and economies are not dominated by global powers such as the US and China.
According to unconfirmed reports, Alstom allegedly offered EU Commissioner Vestager, in exchange for closing the German facility, to close the Alstom production center in Reichshoffen, France. A spokesperson for the European Commission declined to comment on the 'final hurdles' in the Alstom-Bombardier dossier.