Just over a year after European regulators rejected a merger between Alstom of France and Siemens of Germany that would have created a rail-equipment powerhouse, Alstom is going back to Brussels with a new partner and a new deal — and this one is more likely to pass muster, according to experts in EU competition law.

Alstom is buying the rail division of Bombardier of Canada for around €6 billion in cash and stock, according to a memorandum of agreement signed late Monday. The acquisition, if approved, will consolidate Alstom's position as the second-largest rail equipment company in the world by revenue, after CRRC Corp. of China and ahead of Siemens, according to data from SCI Verkehr, a research concern specializing in transportation.

The Alstom-Bombardier deal differs in size, scope and structure from the proposed merger of Alstom and Siemens, which the EU's competition directorate prohibited on Feb. 9, 2019, under the EU Merger Regulation.