OFT approve Universal's Sanctuary takeover

The UK's Office Of Fair Trading has given the OK for Universal Music Group's proposed acquisition of the Sanctuary Group, which the major is hoping to acquire via its UK based Centenary Music Holdings company. That means that regulators in the US, Germany, Spain, Australia and the UK have now given the deal the green light - which means the deal can now go ahead, assuming enough Sanctuary shareholders accept the major's offer. When the deal was originally announced it was thought approval might be required from the tricky European Commission, but it transpired that 'turnover thresholds' were not big enough to require European level approval. The only countries where such approval was required was the US, Germany, Spain, Australia and UK which, as I just said, have all now provided approval. With the paperwork in place, Universal's 20p a share offer now stands until 26 Jul - at last count they'd got committals for 30.88% of the company's shares.