Germany’s Federal Cartel Office has conditionally approved the VTG Aktiengesellschaft’s acquisition of European wagon-leasing company Nacco Group, which was announced last July.

In July last year, VTG entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Nacco Group owner CIT Rail Holdings (Europe) SAS.

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The acquisition is valued at nearly €780m along with all investments made by the Nacco Group in rail freight cars between 1 January 2017 and the closing date of the deal, which may be valued up to €140m.

“With the Nacco fleet, we are offering our customers an even greater and more differentiated portfolio and an even stronger presence in Europe.”

The approval from the German national competition regulator aligns with VTG’s offer to sell about 30% of the Nacco business to third parties before finalising the deal.

Accordingly, VTG now expects to acquire around 10,000 freight cars from Nacco’s fleet of 14,000 units.

Currently, VTG owns a fleet of nearly 80,000 railcars worldwide. The company also expects to hear the decision of the Austrian antitrust court before the end of the month.

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At the time of announcing the acquisition, VTG CEO Dr Heiko Fischer said: “With the agreement to acquire CIT Rail Holdings SAS, we are strengthening our market position in Europe sustainably.

“With the Nacco fleet, we are offering our customers an even greater and more differentiated portfolio and an even stronger presence in Europe. We will also equip the Nacco fleet with the VTG-Connector in the coming years, thus creating a unique network of digital freight cars in the market and in Europe.”

The acquisition is slated for completion by the second half of this year.

Headquartered in Paris, CIT Rail Holdings (Europe) SAS is a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of CIT Group. The company primarily operates in the French, German, Austrian and Eastern European markets.

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