The takeover of the German semiconductor group Siltronic by Taiwan's Globalwafers now only depends on the decision of the Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin.
The Chinese competition authority announced on Friday that it would approve the deal subject to conditions.
The takeover would make Globalwafers the second largest supplier of silicon wafers after the Japanese Shin-Etsu Group.
The discs (wafers) are the basis for microchips.
Patrick Welter
Correspondent for business and politics in Japan based in Tokyo.
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The acquisition values Siltronic at almost 4.4 billion euros.
The Chinese authorities made it a condition that Globalwafers spin off part of the Danish subsidiary Topsil in order to protect competition in the market for 8-inch silicon wafers.
This requirement was agreed in advance with Globalwafers.
The authority also expects the Taiwanese company not to discriminate against Chinese customers.
A political issue in Germany
The takeover is a political issue in Germany after supply bottlenecks with semiconductors during the pandemic promoted the German and European vision of building or maintaining their own semiconductor industry. The Ministry of Economics examines the takeover according to the Foreign Trade Act for risks to economic security. A spokeswoman for the ministry said on Friday that there was no decision yet.
Globalwafers offered, among other things, the possibility of reversal.
On Friday, the company stressed that before China, the antitrust authorities of Germany, Austria, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, the United States and Japan had already approved it, as did the Committee on Foreign Investments in America.
Only a week ago, Siltronic announced that the ministry had not yet commented on whether and under what conditions it could approve the deal.
If no decision is made by the end of January, the takeover has failed.