European Commission conditionally approves Cargotec/Konecranes merger

The European Commission has conditionally approved the planned merger between Cargotec and Konecranes. The approval, which follows the Commission’s extensive investigation and widespread consultation with market participants across Europe, is conditional on the divestment of Konecranes’ Lift Truck business and Cargotec’s Kalmar Automation Solutions.  Konecranes’ Lift Truck business includes its business for the manufacturing and commercialisation of reach stackers, full container handlers, empty container handlers, as well as forklift trucks. This includes manufacturing plants in Sweden and China, and contracts with distributors. Cargotec’s Kalmar Automation Solutions business consists of its full cranes and straddle/shuttle carrier business, including Kalmar’s manufacturing plant in Poland and a licence for use of Cargotec’s Kalmar brand for the divested product categories. The divestitures would eliminate overlaps between the parties’ container handling equipment businesses but allow the combined company to combine other businesses and continue to be a strong player in all aspects of container handling equipment.

The completion of the merger remains subject to further feedback and approvals from various other competition authorities, among others the Department of Justice of the United States and the Competition and Markets Authority of the United Kingdom. These authorities continue to review the merger based on their own processes and assessments of the competitive effects of the combination. As communicated earlier, Cargotec and Konecranes are in continued dialogue with the relevant competition authorities. In this respect, the views of some of the authorities have turned out to be challenging. Therefore, the completion of the merger by the end of H1/2022 seems challenging and for now the companies do not give further comments on the timetable or the merger control processes. The parties will revert to the merger closing timing later and further announcements will be made in due course.

Until all merger closing conditions are met and the transaction completed, both companies continue to operate fully separately and independently.