BERLIN, April 26 (Xinhua) -- German Economy Ministry has approved the takeover of German aerospace supplier Cotesa by Chinese company Advanced Technology and Materials(AT&M).
Cotesa's chief executive officer Joerg Huesken confirmed to German newspaper of Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung on Wednesday that the deal finally got approval from the German government after a months-long investigation.
It was the first takeover conducted by Chinese investors that was approved by the German government since it reformed its rules on foreign acquisitions in July 2017.
Cotesa, a middle-sized German enterprise that makes composite fibre components for aircraft producers such as Airbus and Boeing, signed a take-over contract last September with AT&M for a price at between 100 million to 200 million euros.
But the German Economy Ministry intervened last December and investigated the takeover to "check whether it complies with Germany's law on foreign trade."
According to Germany's reformed laws on foreign trade, the government can block a company from outside the European Union from acquiring more than 25 percent of a German entity that is in "critical infrastructure" such as electricity and water supply, hospitals and transport, as well as advanced defense technologies.
The German Economy Ministry has also raised the investigation time from previous two months to up to four months.
Cotesa has about 750 employees and an annual revenue of about 65 million euros.
Huesken, the founder and CEO of Cotesa, commented on the takeover by AT&M that among all the investors he reached out to "the Chinese are the only ones who recognized our real potential."
The German Economy Ministry refused to comment on the reported approval.
