EU competition regulators gave the greenlight on Monday to the purchase by South Korean group STX Shipbuilding of a controlling minority interest in Norwegian shipmaker Aker Yards.
Meanwhile in Oslo, trading in shares in Aker Yards was suspended after the price of the stock had surged by 20.57 percent to 86.50 kroner but when trading was resumed the stock showed a net gain of 6.38 percent to 75.0 kroner.
The Oslo stock market said that it was looking into trading in the shares. In Brussels, the European Commission said: "After an in-depth investigation, ... the (European) Commission concluded that effective competition on the shipbuilding markets would not be significantly impeded as a result of the proposed transaction."
The South Korean shipbuilder bought the 39-percent stake in Aker Yards in October for 800 million dollars (563 million dollars), acquiring an interest just below a 40-percent threshold that requires a full take-over to be launched.
The commission opened an in-depth antitrust probe into the deal in December over concerns about the impact on competition in the market for the construction of cruise ships and other vessels such as ferries and merchant ships Along with Fincantieri of Italy and Meyer Werft of Germany, Aker Yards is one of the three main players. STX is specialised in cargo vessels such as container ships and gas tankers and until now has not built cruise ships.
"The commission found that by itself STX was still far from close to becoming an effective competitive constraint on the existing cruise ship construction market," the commission said.
"The in-depth investigation also showed that STX was not the only possible market entrant and that post-merger a number of other Far-East shipbuilders would be as equally well placed as STX to enter the market," it added.
Although Norway is not a member of the European Union, it is subject to the bloc's antitrust regulations as a member of the European Economic Area, which includes the EU's 27 members plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
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