Chapter 933 There will be a way

What Daisy was talking about was the acquisition of Bombardier.

It can be said that the acquisition of Bombardier by a consortium composed of France's Alstom and Cavendish Trust has attracted the attention of many people.

At that time, some media reported that it was not easy for this acquisition to pass the review of the EU antitrust agency.

Prior to this, the merger plan of Siemens and Alstom's railway sector had been rejected by the EU antitrust agency.

The views of these media are correct. After all, in the original time and space, when Alstom acquired Bombardier's railway business, it was subject to strict scrutiny by the EU antitrust agency. At that time, Alstom agreed to sell some related businesses to the other party. It passed the antitrust review on the premise that the acquisition of Bombardier's railway business would not pose a threat to "fair competition" in some areas.

But things are different now. After all, Barron has reached an "alliance" with the British government through the high-speed rail line 2 project...

At the same time, France naturally needs to cheer for Alstom's acquisition.

As for Germany...

After the merger of Siemens and Alstom's railway departments is hopeless, considering that most of Bombardier's railway business is in Germany, their attitude can be understood as "order neutral"...

In this way, the three most important countries in the EU, which are also the main countries raising EU funds, have this attitude. If the EU antitrust agency insists on blocking this acquisition, the consequences will be uncontrollable.

So principles are principles. In some cases, the EU's attitude is quite flexible.

So something happened that surprised some previous analysts - less than a month after the EU antitrust agency announced that it would review the Bombardier acquisition, they announced again that they had basically passed the review, including Alstom's. The consortium's acquisition and restructuring plan for Bombardier only made some insignificant requirements...

These demands seem more like symbolic statements made by the EU to protect its own face.

This means that the acquisition and reorganization of Bombardier has been officially reached. Next, according to the existing plan, Bombardier will be split into two parts: railway business and aviation business.

Bombardier's railway business will be merged with Alstom Group's railway business to form Alstom-Bombardier Heavy Industries Group.

Among them, Alstom Group will hold 55% of the shares of Alstom-Bombardier Heavy Industries Group, one of the consortium investors, the British Fortune Times (BFT) Fund, holds 25% of its shares, and another investor, Cavendish The trust holds the remaining 20% ​​of Alstom-Bombardier Heavy Industries Group.

As for Bombardier's aviation business (commercial aircraft and business jet manufacturing), it will be merged with Standard Aviation Manufacturing Company to form Standard Bombardier Aviation Manufacturing Company. Standard Defense Group will hold 65% of the shares of the combined aviation manufacturing company, BFT Fund Holds another 35% of shares.

After such integration, Standard Bombardier Aerospace Manufacturing Company will be involved in three main manufacturing businesses: commercial aircraft (regional airliners), business aircraft and large unmanned aerial vehicles.

Among them, the manufacturing of commercial aircraft and business jets will still be mainly located in Canada, while a related research laboratory for large unmanned aerial vehicles will be set up in Canada. The main department is composed of the Standard Aviation Manufacturing Company originally in England.

Their large-scale fixed-wing UAV project is the "Tiercel" UAV project that has been developed by a team to compete with General Atomics' "Predator" UAV. It is expected that the first one will be completed by the middle of next year. The construction of a prototype aircraft, experiments and verification in various environments and tasks.

Now that the European Union has given approval for the establishment of Alstom-Bombardier Heavy Industry Group, it will be ready to start the project of Line 2 of the British High-Speed ​​Railway.

As the CEO of the First Railway Group in the UK, Amber Sheehan has made an offer for a full acquisition of Eversholt Railway Group, one of the three largest railway vehicle leasing companies in the UK. The offer is 2.3 billion pounds, which is compared to the market value of this company. We have already given a sufficient premium, and I believe this negotiation process will not drag on for too long.

"In terms of the EU's special fund for high-speed rail subsidies, we hope that the other party will provide no less than 2.5 billion euros in funding, but currently the EU has only promised to provide 1 billion euros in funding, and the gap is still huge..."

While acquiring the Eversholt Railway Group, Amber is also paying attention to the negotiations between the British government and the European Union on subsidies from the high-speed rail special fund.

Yes, the matter of subsidies from the special high-speed rail fund is mainly negotiated between relevant personnel of the British government and the European Union. After all, Britain has to hand over so much funds to the European Union every year. When it is time to ask for subsidies, it still has to try its best to ask for more. , otherwise the money would be used for "poverty alleviation" in those countries in Eastern and Southern Europe...

"This should be a headache for the Prime Minister. I believe he will find a solution."

Barron is not in a hurry about this. After all, in the investment agreement between First Railway Group and the British government regarding High Speed ​​Rail Line 2, Barron requested that it be stated in the agreement that the British government will contribute to this project. Invest no less than 2.5 billion euros.

After all, the High Speed ​​Rail Line 2 is of great significance to both the British government and Cameron.

But for Barron, in the final analysis, it is a commercial project that needs to make a certain profit.

"Mr. Prime Minister, I can help you solve this problem and win the praise of the people for your government, but the premise is that I cannot build and operate at a loss. If we cannot get more subsidy funds, it means that we need to invest more funds, so we can only make back the money by raising ticket prices..."

That's what Barron said to Cameron at the time:

"We all know the importance of High Speed ​​Rail Line 2 to Britain, but thin verbal support cannot achieve practical results. We need sufficient financial support from the government."

Therefore, if the British government cannot obtain the 2.5 billion euro "subsidy" from the EU, it means that the difference needs to be made up in the government budget.

I believe that Cameron, who is now committed to reducing the government budget, will definitely not hesitate to reduce the "submission funds" to the EU as a threat to ask the EU to provide them with sufficient high-speed rail subsidies.

After all this, including the formation of the First Rail Group in the UK and the arrival of high-speed rail subsidies, they will start bidding for the High-Speed ​​Rail Line 2...