European antitrust regulators have approved a merger creating an all-in-one freight car business between The Greenbrier Companies and Germany’s Astra Rail Management GmbH.
The companies said the transaction creating Greenbrier-Astra Rail will be completed on June 1, 2017 and combines the operations of Greenbrier Europe and Astra Rail to create an end-to-end, Europe-based freight railcar manufacturing, engineering and repair business.
The new company, with 4,000 employees and six production facilities across Europe, will have its principal operations in Poland and Romania, and headquarters in The Netherlands.
Greenbrier is based in Lake Oswego, Ore., and has operations in the U.S., Latin America and Europe. Its European operations supply tank cars to Saudi Arabia, and it recently opened GBSummit, an axle machining facility in San Bernardino, Calif.
Astra Rail has manufacturing, engineering and repair factories in Arad, Severin and Caracal, Romania.