BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel Corp will be decided by European Union antitrust regulators by May 17, with their approval a formality, a European Commission filing showed.
The Japanese steelmaker sought EU clearance on April 9, with the EC reviewing the deal under a simplified procedure, according to the filing.
Such a process is used for cases in which the EU competition enforcer has no competition concerns, or the companies’ individual or combined market share is low.
Nippon Steel, which clinched a deal to buy the 122-year-old American steelmaker for a hefty premium in December, however, faces headwinds with U.S. antitrust regulators.
Nippon Steel has manufacturing bases in Sweden, Finland and Britain and an office in Germany while U.S. Steel has a Slovakian subsidiary.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Richard Chang)
