By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS, July 10 (Reuters) – U.S. oilfield services firm Baker Hughes BKR.O secured EU antitrust approval on Friday for its $13.6 billion acquisition of Chart Industries GTLS.N after agreeing to sell a Chart business.
Baker Hughes announced the deal in July last year to boost its presence in industrial technology servicing liquefied natural gas and data centres and to leverage its industrial and energy technology portfolio.
The European Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, said concessions offered by Baker Hughes addressed its concerns about the company’s ability and incentive to favour Chart’s LNG business.
It said the companies will divest Chart’s proprietary process technology and its small-scale process technology business and will also ensure the interoperability of their equipment with third parties’ LNG equipment. The remedies will be valid for 10 years.
Chart makes industrial equipment such as valves and measurement technology for gas and liquid molecule handling and has 65 manufacturing locations with more than 50 service centres globally.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)
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