Status:  Clearance

Acquirer:  Safran SA (France)

Acquired:  Rockwell Collins’s Trimmable Horizontal Stabilizer Actuators (THSAs) Business (US)

Value:  Unknown

Industry:  Aerospace

On October 1, 2018, the US Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, announced that it will require United Technologies Corporation (UTC) to “divest Rockwell Collins’s trimmable horizontal stabilizer actuators (THSAs) business” to Safran S.A. as part of the Divisions antitrust clearance of the deal between aerospace and defense companies United Technologies and Rockwell Collins (now “Collins Aerospace”).  (DOJ Press Release, Justice Department Requires UTC to Divest Two Aerospace Businesses to Proceed with Acquisition of Rockwell Collins, Oct. 1, 2018.)  The THSA business supplies “(i) trimmable horizontal stabilizer actuators (“THSAs”), legacy flap actuation, and nose wheel steering gear boxes; and (ii) pilot control systems, including center yokes, rudder brake pedal units, throttle quadrant assemblies, auto-throttles, and control stand modules.”  (Final Judgment, U.S. v. United Technologies Corp. and Rockwell Collins, Inc., D.D.C. Jan. 11, 2019.)  Under the final judgment, the sale of the THSA business was conditioned on “Required Regulatory Approvals,” which included “clearance pursuant to any Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) filing . . .”  (Id.) Safran acquired the divested business on February 11, 2019.  (See Safran Press Release, Safran acquires ElectroMechanical Systems business from Collins Aerospace, Feb. 11, 2019.)