At TNT Express’s AGM on Wednesday, Chairman Antony Burgmans agreed that UPS’s failure to understand the culture of the European Commission was the reason for the collapse of the American logistics giant’s €5.2bn bid to take over TNT.
Image c/o TNT Express
The EC formally vetoed the merger at the end of January 2013, though UPS has pulled out two weeks earlier when it became apparent that the Commission would not allow the deal to go ahead, citing concerns about threats to competition in EU markets.
Speaking of lessons learnt during the attempted merger, Burgmans stated, “Whenever you’re dealing with Brussels, you must make sure that you’ve done your homework very carefully.” He stated that throughout the process, UPS seemed confident of obtaining regulatory approval from the EC and were not sufficiently humble in the face of the European Regulatory Bodies.
The chairman went on to say ““Brussels has a totally different culture than in Washington. UPS was fully in charge of everything. From this side of the table we did everything we could to give all the information about the Brussels culture”.
UPS is yet to comment on the TNT Express Chairman’s statements
Source: Post and Parcel
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