President Trump has poured cold water on a $120 billion merger between United Technologies and Raytheon by suggesting that the deal could make it harder for the Pentagon to negotiate weapons contracts. Mr Trump, who has criticised big corporate deals throughout his presidency, said that he was “a little concerned” that the blockbuster merger would hurt competition in the aerospace industry. United Technologies, a $116 billion engineering conglomerate, and Raytheon, a $53 billion defence contractor, said on Sunday that they had agreed a merger of equals, one of the largest deals in the defence industry. The combined company would have about $74 billion in sales this year, making it the second largest aerospace group in the world after Boeing. Mr Trump’s comments knocked the gloss…

Source: The Times June 10, 2019 16:07 UTC