Two of the world’s largest elevator and escalator makers – KONE and TK Elevator (TKE) – have sought the competition regulators’ nod for the India leg of their proposed global merger. Finland’s KONE announced the acquisition of Germany’s TKE through a cash-and-share transaction in April 2026. In a note, PwC described the €29.4 billion transaction as “the largest deal in Finland’s corporate history.”
According to a summary of the proposed transaction submitted to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), KONE proposes to acquire sole control over TKE. The filing identifies horizontal overlaps between KONE and TKE in India across “new installation, services, maintenance and repair, and modernisation of elevators and escalators.”
According to market estimates, KONE currently has roughly a quarter of India’s elevator market. In 2017, TKE (when it operated as thyssenkrupp Elevator) held around 6.5–7% share of the India market. The two did not give updated numbers of market share in the summary.
KONE operates in India through KONE Elevator India Pvt Ltd, while TKE provides new installation, modernisation, and maintenance and repair services for elevators, escalators and moving walkways.
The parties claim this transaction does not create any actual vertical relationship between them and “does not raise a risk of an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India, irrespective of how the relevant markets are defined.”
