EU to veto Olympic tie-up with Aegean

Financial Times
January 25, 2011

European antitrust regulators are poised to block a proposed merger for the first time in almost four years.

The decision to give a red light to the planned tie-up between Olympic Airlines and fellow Greek carrier Aegean will be announced on Wednesday by Joaquín Almunia, the EU competition commissioner.

Separately, Mr Almunia is expected to give a conditional go-ahead to another contentious takeover deal, the $7.7bn purchase of US security software company McAfee by Intel, after the world’s biggest chipmaker offered concessions.

The Greek airline merger will be the first takeover to face outright opposition from EU competition officials since Ryanair was told that it could not acquire rival Irish carrier Aer Lingus in mid-2007.

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