Brussels, 15/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has given regulatory clearance to the proposed acquisition of French electrical equipment maker Legrand SA by French holding company Wendel Investissement and US equity investment company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. The Commission carefully assessed whether the proposed acquisition of Legrand by Wendel and KKR raised any competition issues. The analysis focused on emergency lighting systems and professional light fittings in which Legrand and KKR are both active, the latter through its Austrian subsidiary Zumtobel. However, since the operation presents only minor overlaps and given that there remains a sufficient number of credible competitors on these markets. The Commission also revealed that Wendel partly controls Bureau Veritas, which in turn controls LCIE, the French certification body for electrical products. This raised the question of whether LCIE could favour Legrand and Zumtobel in the granting of the French quality mark (the "NF" mark) to the detriment of their competitors. But the Commission concluded that the competitive advantage would only be minimal, given the mutual recognition procedures among all the European certification bodies and the growing importance of the EC mark and of manufacturers' own trademarks. Just over a year ago the Commission prohibited the merger between French electrical products manufacturers Schneider Electric SA and Legrand SA. Given that Schneider had already acquired the control of Legrand before being granted authorisation from the Commission in a separate decision at the beginning of 2002, Schneider was obliged to sell the shares it had acquired (see EUROPE 31 January 2002 p 14 and 11 October 2001 p 10). Schneider appealed to the Court of First Instance (CFI), which will give its verdict on October 22. Schneider's sale agreement with Wendel and KKR contains an annulment clause, which Schneider may invoke in case the Court of First Instance would annul the prohibition decision.