Mergers: Commission approves proposed battery systems joint venture between Robert Bosch and Samsung
- Germany
- 08/18/2008
The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed joint venture between the German Robert Bosch GmbH and the South Korean Samsung SDI Co. Ltd. in the market for battery systems for hybrid electric and electric vehicles. After examining the operation, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.
Bosch is a global supplier of a wide range of technical products, inter alia in the automotive sector. Samsung develops, produces and sells electronic products worldwide. Bosch and Samsung intend to set up a jointly controlled business that would develop, produce and sell battery systems and mid- to large-sized energy storage devices based on the lithium-ion technology for the automotive industry’s increasing demand for battery systems for hybrid electric and electric vehicles. The joint venture would offer its products in its own name and on its own account.
By combining the parties’ know-how in their respective core businesses, they aim at enabling the joint venture to develop rapidly a marketable product that would meet the specific demands of the automotive industry.
With the planned joint venture the parties intend to enter a market in which none of them has been active in the past. The market investigation has revealed that other manufacturers have entered or are in the process of entering the market for battery systems with similar products and solutions. Therefore, the joint venture would not be in a position to engage in anticompetitive behaviour and customers in the automotive industry would have a sufficient array of sourcing alternatives for this component.
The Commission thus concluded that the proposed concentration would not give rise to any competition concerns.
