S&P Global and IHS Markit announced on 22 October that they have received conditional approval for their $44bn merger from the European Commission.

This follows the UK's antitrust regulator's approval in recent days.

Douglas Peterson, president and chief executive of S&P Global said: "The European Commission's decision provides clarity on the steps we will need to implement to complete our combination.Once concluded, I expect the merger of these two great businesses to accelerate innovation within our core services and generate exciting new opportunities that deliver on our capacity to power the markets of the future."

"Our teams have been working closely with the relevant regulatory authorities to achieve this important milestone for our merger," added Lance Uggla, chairman and chief executive of IHS Markit. "Once combined, the new company will deliver a broader set of information and insights that will drive the growth and performance of our customers."

In response to concerns raised by the EC, S&P Global has committed to divest CUSIP Global Services and its Leveraged Commentary and Data (LCD) business, together with a related family of leveraged loan indices.

As previously announced, the companies have also agreed to divest of IHS Markit's Oil Price Information Services (OPIS), Coal, Metals and Mining (CMM), and PetroChem Wire (PCW) businesses, and are exploring a divestiture of IHS Markit's base chemicals business in response to concerns raised by the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority.

S&P Global and IHS Markit expect the proposed remedies to be sufficient to satisfy global regulators. However, both the merger and the divestitures remain subject to further review and approval by global regulators and antitrust authorities, including in the United States and Canada, and the companies will continue to work constructively with those authorities.

S&P Global and IHS Markit now anticipate closing the proposed merger in the first quarter of 2022, subject to all regulatory approvals and the satisfaction or waiver of specified closing conditions.