Two of Europe's major land defense companies finally decide to merge

Well, well. Finally two of Europe's major land defense companies have decided to merge, or “share their future road ahead” as the German partner of this new couple wrote in its press statement issued today (July 1) after the close of Europe's stock exchanges.

Nexter Systems of France and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann are the happy fiancés and kept the budding romance very quiet, no hint of an impending marriage seeping out during last week's Eurosatory show. I was wondering why Nexter's Director of Communications looked so bouncy and happy during the show which is generally an exhausting affair. Now we know!

The new entity, which will be the European leader in land armaments, should become effective in the early months of 2015 once due diligence has been completed.

The French finance, economic and defense ministries issued a statement congratulating the two partners on the quality of the discussions that have taken place over the past few months leading up to today's announcement.