15.1.2016   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 12/5

1.

On 8 January 2016, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which Airbus Safran Launchers (‘ASL’, France), the newly joint venture jointly controlled by Airbus Group S.E. (‘Airbus’, the Netherlands) and Safran SA (‘Safran’, France), acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation sole control over Arianespace Participation SA and Arianespace SA (together, ‘Arianespace’, France), by way of purchase of the entire shareholding currently held by CNES in Arianespace.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—   for ASL: development and production of launch vehicles in the civil and military launchers sectors, as well as satelllite sub-systems and equipment,

—   for Arianespace: provision of launch services to private and institutionnal satellite operators through the fleet of launchers developed by ESA.

3.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.

4.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by e-mail to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference number M.7724 — ASL/Arianespace, to the following address: