The European Union's competition watchdog cleared on Tuesday a nearly 1 billion pound bid by U.S. industrial technology company Emerson to take over British power systems group Chloride.
The European Commission said the deal would not significantly impede effective competition in the 27-nation bloc because the merged entity would still face "strong competition" in all national markets.
Chloride said last month that it was recommending to shareholders that they accept the 997-million-pound (US$ 1.5-billion) takeover bid.
Emerson, which has around 129,000 employees and 250 manufacturing locations worldwide, would take sole control over Chloride in the proposed transaction.
Chloride employs about 2,500 people and posted sales of 336 million pounds in the year to March 2010.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
