Siemens AG and Alstom SA’s plan to merge into a world-conquering European rail champion was blocked by the region’s antitrust regulators who refused to cave in to warnings about the looming threat of Chinese competition.
Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s antitrust chief, said the duo could have won her blessing had they offered to sell enough assets to allay competition concerns. She didn’t buy into their argument of rail rivalry from Asia, saying "the Chinese are nowhere" in Europe and "literally have no presence here."
