The German industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp and the US investment fund OEP, which controls the shipbuilder HDW, have signed a merger agreement after several months of negotiations, ThyssenKrupp said Friday. The merger with HDW, the world's leading conventional submarine maker, will create an entity with annual sales of about €2.2 billion ($2.7 billion) and a workforce of 9,300. ThyssenKrupp has said it wants eventually to integrate HDW in its own ship-building venture, Blohm and Voss. It said Friday the merger was "the first stage in a wider consolidation of European shipbuilding." France and Germany have on several occasions backed the creation of a European shipbuilding consortium. (AFP)