Brussels, 29/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - France's Schneider Electric has signed a deal with the consortium made up of Wendel Investments and the US investment fund KKR to sell Legrand for EUR 3.63 billion. The consortium will also take on Legrand's net debt (EUR 1.1 bill) valuing the company at EUR 4.8 bill. Schneider will, however, receive a very much lower price than it paid in its takeover bid for the company (EUR 6.4 billion plus an additional payment of EUR 370 million at a later date). The deal will only be officialised once the European Court of Justice has ruled on Schneider's appeal against the European Commission's veto of its merger with Legrand, forcing it to sell its Legrand shares (the ruling is expected in mid-October). In October 2002, the European Commission decided not to authorise the merger between the two French electric equipment companies, but Schneider had already rushed to buy up almost all of Legrand before getting the all-clear from the Commission and was forced to put them on the market.