Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) announced on December 28, 2020, that it has recently been notified of "unconditional approval" issued by the Chinese authorities regarding its merger with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).

This marks the third approval following that of Kazakhstan in October 2019 and Singapore in August 2020.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) of China said in a notice that "our review under Article 26 of the Anti-Trust Act of China has led to the conclusion that the business combination between the two companies would not restrict market competition."

After KSOE presented its merger request to the Chinese competition authorities in July last year, Beijing conducted three reviews and gave a go-ahead after 17 months.

This unconditional approval by China is particularly significant in that it came against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, an unexpected variable, as well as some industry insiders' concerns about how China may want to keep at bay its largest rival country in the global shipbuilding market, which is a meaningful achievement attributed to KSOE's active explanations to dispel concerns of market monopoly.

KSOE is expecting the recent series of unconditional approvals from China, Singapore, and Kazakhstan to help elicit favorable outcomes from the remaining nations where reviews are in progress.

"We will do our utmost to ensure the reviews of the corporate combination being conducted by the competition authorities of the EU, Korea, and Japan yield successful outcomes for us, by faithfully explaining related issues as per the respective schedules and procedures of the authorities," said an official of KSOE.