Seoul, May 22 (IANS): SK hynix, South Korea's second-largest chipmaker, has earned approval from Europe's antitrust watchdog for its acquisition of Intel's NAND business.

SK hynix said late on Friday that it received unconditional clearance from the European Commission for its takeover of Intel's non-volatile memory unit.

Last October, SK hynix signed a deal to buy Intel's NAND business for $9 billion, which includes the US firm's solid state drive business and a NAND flash chip plant in Dalian, China.

Following the deal, the South Korean firm had to obtain approval from antitrust regulators in major countries, reports Yonhap news agency.

SK hynix said antitrust reviews from six countries, including South Korea, China and Britan, are currently in process. The company plans to obtain approval from those countries by the end of this year.

In the US, the company's acquisition deal received approval from the Federal Trade Commission last year and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US in March.

SK hynix was the world's fourth-largest NAND flash producer with a market share of 11.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to industry tracker TrendForce.

The acquisition of Intel's NAND business is projected to make SK hynix the world's second-largest NAND flash vendor behind Samsung Electronics.