American express package firm UPS is to be presented with a formal EU complaint about its planned takeover of Dutch firm TNT Express, the Financial Times reports on Wednesday.

The paper says the European Commission is close to completing its in-depth investigation into the €5.2bn takeover bid and will issue a ‘statement of objections’ as soon as next week.
The FT says investigators have told UPS it must offer to sell off some units or ‘eliminate the antitrust concerns’.

Four players
The Commission ordered the investigation in July, stating there are only four companies which ‘control a comprehensive air and road small package delivery network throughout Europe and beyond and are capable of offering the broadest portfolio of such services’.
As well as TNT Express and UPS, these are Deutsche Post’s DHL and US firm Fedex, the statement said.
Both TNT and UPS had regarded European approval as a formality.