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The
U.S. conglomerate asked for the closed-door hearing after the
European Commission said the deal, GE's biggest ever, would harm
competition because it would leave just two gas turbine
companies in Europe - GE and German rival Siemens.
Steve Bolze, president and CEO of GE Power & Water, GE's biggest
industrial unit, is expected to counter the Commission's
concerns with data showing that the merged company's market
power would not be as dominant as painted by the regulator.
He is also likely to call for a broader assessment of the sector
to take into account Chinese rivals, which the Commission has
excluded from its review.
GE is expected to offer concessions in the coming days. It has
said it would be willing to give up some intellectual property
rights related to some of Alstom's assets but not anything that
would affect lucrative service revenue streams.
GE's team at the hearing included its lawyer, Sharis Pozen, a
former acting assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department
of Justice, who led the U.S. enforcer's veto against AT&T's
$39 billion bid for T-Mobile and opened a case against Apple's
eBooks deals with five publishers.
Alstom Chief Executive Patrick Kron also attended the hearing,
which kicked off at 0730 GMT and was due to end at around 1500
GMT.
Other participants included rivals Mitsubishi Hitachi Power
Systems, Toshiba Corp and Italian company Ansaldo. A source who
attended the hearing said German competitor Siemens was not
present.
Britain's Competition and Markets Authority sent its director in
charge of mergers, Nelson Jung. The Commission's deputy director
general for mergers, Carles Esteva Mosso, led the EU team.
(Editing by Susan Fenton)
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