Mario Monti News

U.S. industrial conglomerate General Electric Co is in advanced talks to buy the global power division of struggling French engineering group Alstom SA for about $13 billion, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday. Sources said a deal was backed by Alstom's main shareholder, French conglomerate Bouygues with 29 percent, and could be announced in the coming days after an Alstom board meeting on Friday afternoon. The board was due to meet again on Sunday to discuss the transaction, French daily Le Figaro said. "Talks are going ahead swiftly, the deal's structure is defined and everything is almost ready," one of the sources said. Alstom Chief Executive Patrick Kron confirmed to union representatives there were talks about an "industrial deal," but did not name GE.

A European Union investigation over the possible repayment of subsidies by German shipyard Aker Warnow Werft – formerly Kvaerner Warnow Werft – looks set to drag on. A spokesman for European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti dismissed a news report to the contrary, adding that there was no schedule for a decision yet. The case has been pending for several years.

Slovenian shipping firm Intereuropa and port operator Luka Koper canceled a planned merger because the government was demanding the right to veto any management decisions in the new firm. The two companies had planned to merge on July 1. The state owns 51 percent of Luka, while Intereuropa is privately owned. The state's equity in the new company would have been 35.7 percent. "There will be no merger under such conditions where the government would have the right to veto practically every management decision," Radovan Vrabec, Intereuropa's deputy chief executive, said. He said the two companies would be ready to continue merger talks if the government eased its demands. Vrabec said the two firms would not suffer short-term damage due to the failure of the merger.

The prime minister of the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania asked the European Commission to ease capacity limits imposed on eastern German shipyards as a condition for receiving state aid grants. State premier Harald Ringstorff told EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti an increase would prevent the yards' improved productivity leading to further job losses. "Any such proposal will be looked at with the utmost care and attention, also in the light of the report concerning the situation of shipbuilding which the Commission will present ... in May," the statement quoted Monti as saying. Shipyards in the former East Germany have received massive cash injections since German unification to keep them afloat.

The European Commission said on Tuesday it had fined 15 liner shipping companies a total of just under $6.3 million for agreeing not to offer discounts from their published tariffs. The companies involved were members of the now-defunct Far East Trade Tariff Charges and Surcharges Agreement (FETTCSA), and include Germany's Hapag-Lloyd AG, Denmark's A.P. Moeller and Britain's P&O Nedlloyd. The Commission said the fines were modest because an agreement not to discount is less damaging to competition than a price-fixing cartel. "Shipping lines operating within liner conferences benefit from an exceptionally generous exemption from the normal European competition rules," EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said.

Today the Council of the EU approved the twin-track strategy proposed by the European Commission to counter unfair Korean practices in the shipbuilding sector. The EU has set a deadline of the end September to resolve the dispute amicably, failing which it will immediately launch procedures for a Panel against Korea in WTO and activate a temporary defensive mechanism (TDM) for European shipbuilding. The Commission will now hold a series of further negotiations with Korean authorities in an attempt to restore normal trading practices in this sector. Welcoming the decision, EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said "Korea now knows that if we fail to resolve this dispute in the few weeks between now and the end of September…