Safran wins EU antitrust approval for $1.8 billion Collins deal
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on April 4, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on April 4, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 24, 2026
Safran secures EU approval for its $1.8B Collins Aerospace deal by agreeing to divest a North American business, addressing competition concerns.
By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - French engine and aircraft equipment maker Safran on Friday secured the green light from EU antitrust regulators for its $1.8 billion bid for Collins Aerospace's flight controls business after pledging to sell a North American actuator business.
Safran announced the deal in 2023, its largest since its 2018 acquisition of seat maker Zodiac seven years ago, to help it better prepare for the next generation of increasingly computerised aircraft and expand its portfolio to supply civil and defence plane makers.
The European Commission said Safran's offer to divest a business addresses worries that the deal would have reduced competition in the markets for the supply of trimmable horizontal stabiliser actuator systems (THSA) and also lead to higher prices.
"To address the Commission's competition concerns, Safran offered to divest the entirety of its North American THSA business, which includes sites in Canada and in the United States, as well as assets in Mexico," the EU competition enforcer said in a statement.
The Commission will separately review potential buyer Woodward which reached a deal to buy the business from Safran last December.
Reuters was the first to report on imminent EU approval for the Collins deal. Collins is part of RTX Corp.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)
The article discusses Safran's acquisition of Collins Aerospace's flight controls business and the EU's antitrust approval.
Safran needed to divest its North American THSA business to address EU competition concerns.
Woodward is set to purchase the divested North American THSA business from Safran.
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