Turkey approves Hanwha Group's acquisition of DSME

The Turkish competition authority has approved Hanwha Group’s acquisition of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME), the first country to do so, as the deal progresses amid merger reviews by other authorities, according to people familiar with the matter on Tuesday.

The UK competition authority has also practically approved it. "In the case of the UK, if there are no issues during the merger review process, it will be passed without an approval process, so it can be considered practically approved," a Hanwha Group official stated. The UK competition authority plans to announce its final approval soon.

Hanwha Group, a South Korean conglomerate, signed a 2 trillion won ($1.5 billion) agreement in December last year to buy DSME, one of the world’s largest shipbuilders. It has applied for merger reviews by eight countries including Korea, the European Union (EU), Japan, China and Singapore.

The deal is expected to face little opposition from overseas regulators as it will not change the current triopoly in the domestic shipbuilding market and will not create a monopoly on liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers like Hyundai Heavy Industries’ case, industry watchers said.

With Turkey and UK’s approvals, Hanwha Group and DSME are likely to complete their merger quickly. “If there is no opposition from overseas competition authorities, the merger of the two companies will be completed by around April,” an industry insider said.

Write to Ik-Whan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com