Green Light For Sainsbury's Argos Takeover

Britain's competition authority has cleared the £1.4bn takeover of the owner of Argos by supermarket group Sainsbury (Amsterdam: SJ6.AS - news) 's.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had decided not to refer the acquisition of Home Retail Group for an in-depth investigation.

Sainsbury's welcomed the decision, with the deal now expected to complete in early September - pending approval by Home Retail Group shareholders next week, and the City watchdog.

The CMA had announced in June that it needed to decide whether the deal was likely to result in a "substantial lessening of competition" and would therefore warrant a full investigation.

Such a probe could have delayed the completion of a takeover as the authority decided whether to block it or order the sale of some stores to allay competition fears.

The deal is set to create a £6bn non-food operation, putting the new business in the same league as John Lewis and Marks & Spencer (Other OTC: MAKSF - news) and also taking on Amazon.

Sainsbury's has said it plans to relocate many Argos stores within under-occupied space in its supermarkets, threatening the closure of up to 200 sites.

Argos currently has more than 800 stores and employs 30,000 people. It notched up sales of more than £4bn for the year to the end of February.