By Jens Hansegard 

STOCKHOLM-- General Electric has walked away from the agreed $3.3 billion sale of its appliance business to Sweden's Electrolux AB, bowing to pressure from the U.S. Justice Department which wanted to block the transaction on antitrust grounds.

GE has terminated the sale, Electrolux said in a statement on Monday.

"Electrolux has made extensive efforts to obtain regulatory approvals, and regrets that GE has terminated the agreement while the court procedure is pending," Electrolux said.

The proposed acquisition was announced on September 8, 2014. On July 1, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Electrolux and General Electric to stop the proposed acquisition.

Electrolux said that the settlement proposals it offered the Justice Department were reasonable and would have addressed The Justice Department's competition concerns.

"Unfortunately, these proposals were rejected by Justice Department," Electrolux said.

According to the transaction agreement, Electrolux is required to pay to General Electric a termination fee of $175 million under certain circumstances.

General Electric has requested payout of the amount, Electrolux said.

Write to Jens Hansegard at jens.hansegard@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 07, 2015 03:01 ET (08:01 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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