On 19 April 2017 the European Commission has cleared the acquisition of Industria de Turbo Propulsores (ITP) by Rolls-Royce. ITP is a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Spanish SENER, established in 1989 and specialised in the design and manufacture of aircraft engine components, while Rolls-Royce is active in the development and manufacture of aircraft engines and power systems for civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine and energy applications. The approval is subject to the removal, by Rolls-Royce, of a conflict of interest concerning the EPI engine consortium.

EPI is a military engine consortium comprising Rolls-Royce, ITP, MTU of Germany and Safran of France; it designs and manufactures the engine powering the Airbus A400M, which competes with the Lockheed Martin C-130J aircraft, powered by a Rolls-Royce engine.

The acquisition of ITP as originally proposed by Rolls-Royce would have enabled the latter to obtain additional influence on the decision-making process of the EPI consortium, on matters that affect its competitiveness with regard to the Lockheed Martin C-130J.

The Commission cleared the proposed acquisition subject to full compliance by Rolls-Royce with the commitments it proposed in relation to the EPI governance rules in order to eliminate the conflict of interest created by the merger.

The new relationship between ITP and Rolls-Royce was also investigated. However, the Commission concluded that there were no competition concerns considering that, after the merger, Rolls-Royce would have neither the ability nor the incentive to limit or cut off the supply of ITP’s engine components to other manufacturers of aircraft engines competing with Rolls-Royce.

Davide Scavuzzo