Thyssenkrupp and Tata have been granted more time by the European Commission (EC) for the completion of their merger application.
“In the ongoing control proceedings, the deadline for the partners to submit a proposal to address the concerns expressed by the Commission is currently imminent,” thyssenkrupp says in a statement sent to Kallanish. In order to prepare this proposal, the partners have agreed, in dialogue with the Commission, to request an extension of 8 working days, they said without giving a date.
The original deadline set last year for the process was 19 March, but was dismissed in December as the procedure was stalled to meet inquiries from Brussels. “We remain confident that we will be able to close the transaction in the spring”, the statement reads. On its website, the EC cites a provisional deadline for the proposal of 13 May 2019, without it being clear if this Is the date before or after the extension was agreed.
On the day of the announcement, tk Steel ceo Andreas Gross spoke at the annual Zukunft Stahl conference organised by Handelsblatt/Euroforum in Düsseldorf. Goss has made few public appearances for years, and on Thursday he appeared to want to make up for lost time with some of his comments.
The merger will make him ceo of a company with mills in the UK, where he had studied and headed up Siemens UK for many years, with his family still living in the UK. “Thus, I can claim some judgement, which is unusual for a Bavarian,” he joked. He said that he has little empathy for Brexit. He remarked that “… the EU has a value at its core, which is more than being a free-trade zone. Whoever does not understand that will have to carry the public consequences.”
