DCN, Thales eyeing German submarine maker HDW: sources

PARIS (AFP) Jul 08, 2003
The French state-owned shipbuilding group Direction des constructions navales (DCN) is considering a possible bid to acquire German group HDW, the world's leading maker of conventional submarines, a DCN spokesman said Tuesday.

"Why not? ... HDW has operations that could be interesting," he said, adding that the group was "looking at whether they are interesting for DCN."

"The door is neither open nor closed. Nothing has been done."

But the spokesman denied a report in the German newspaper Die Welt that DCN had offered to buy HDW from its current owners OEP -- One Equity Partners -- for 800 million euros (904 million dollars) and would not say if negotiations were actually under way on an acquisition.

Earlier Tuesday a source in Frankfurt close to the matter said both DCN and the French defence company Thales had expressed an interest in buying HDW.

Two other groups were also in the running to buy the maker of non-nuclear submarines, namely US defence group Northrop Grumman and German heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp, the source said.

But according to Die Welt the German government was already considering blocking the deal for fear German defence-related technology could fall into foreign hands.

A spokesman for Thales declined to comment on the matter.

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