Germany's federal cartel office has upheld a complaint filed by German Naval Yards after the defence ministry decided to skip an open procurement for five new military corvettes valued at over 1.5 billion euros, according to German media reports. The ministry had no immediate comment on the reports in German newspapers Die Welt and Sueddeutsche Zeitung. A spokesman for the cartel office declined to comment, saying only that a decision was likely to be announced on Thursday. No comment was immediately available from Luerrsen, which leads the consortium, or the German Naval Yards shipyard, which is owned by Privinvest. Sources familiar with the process said other options were possible, such as including German Naval Yards in the consortium, which could resolve the issue and keep the project on track.

Source: dna May 17, 2017 10:52 UTC