Safran/Zodiac Merger

In December 2017, the European Commission unconditionally approved the transaction between French aerospace equipment suppliers Safran and Zodiac Aerospace after a Phase I investigation. The merger, creating the world’s third-largest aerospace supplier, required clearance in various jurisdictions, including the European Union, the United States of America, Russia, Turkey and China. Compass Lexecon provided a competitive assessment of the merger. We assessed the potential horizontal and vertical effects from the transaction and analyzed market shares in multiple jurisdictions. The European Commission concluded that the increase in market share from the merger was very limited and the merged entity would not gain market power over suppliers and customers. The transaction was cleared in all jurisdictions where it had been filed.

The Compass Lexecon team in Europe was led by Jorge Padilla and David Sevy, and included Jeremiah Juts, Valérie Meunier, Thibaut De Bernard, Aleksandra Khimich, Jaime Coronado Hinojosa, Anastasia Tseomashko and Helene Gallot. We worked closely with Maria Trabucchi, Jérôme Fabre and Giuliana Galbati from BDGS Associés and Eric Barbier de la Serre and Claire Lavin at Jones Day.