The European Commission has cleared Harman International’s takeover of Germany’s ZF Capri HoldCo and a separate joint acquisition of telecoms tower firms in Belgium and the Netherlands, after finding neither deal would raise competition concerns.
Harman, a US company ultimately controlled by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, will take sole control of ZF Capri under the EU Merger Regulation, the Commission announced on Monday.
The deal centres on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) — in-car technology such as automated braking or lane-keeping support — for passenger vehicles.
The Commission said it concluded the transaction would have a limited impact on competition in the markets where the companies are active, and that their combined market shares would remain moderate where their activities overlap.
It also examined links between Samsung’s supply of memory chips and image sensors and ZF Capri’s ADAS business, and found the merged company would not have the ability or incentive to restrict rivals’ access to those components.
The review was carried out under the EU’s normal merger procedure.
Separate approval for telecoms towers deal
In a separate decision, the Commission also approved the acquisition of joint control of Belgium Tower Partners (BTP) and Vodafone Antennelocaties in the Netherlands by DigitalBridge of the US, TD Asset Management of Canada and Legal & General BeNe HoldCo of the UK.
That transaction relates to telecoms infrastructure, and the Commission said it would not raise competition concerns because the companies are not active in the same or vertically related markets.
The case was assessed under the simplified merger review procedure.
