SEOUL (Reuters – South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc reported Wednesday that the Chinese antitrust authorities granted it merger clearances to allow for its purchase of SK Hynix Inc. Intel Corp (NASDAQ)’s NAND Memory Chip Business, paving the way for the world’s second-largest manufacturer of memory chips to obtain regulatory approvals in all eight countries.

Last October saw the U.S. Chip giant sell its NAND chip business to SK Hynix, in a bid to focus its Optane business, which employs more advanced technology.

“SK Hynix sincerely appreciates and welcomes the State Administration for Market Regulation for approving this merger. SK Hynix will increase its competitiveness in NAND Flash business and SSD business, by continuing the post-merger integration processes,” said the company.

China’s regulator of the market said Wednesday it approved the deal, but subject to conditions.

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation stated in a statement that the concentration of SATA and PCIe solid state drives businesses following the acquisition could have an adverse effect on competition in these markets. Therefore, additional conditions are required to this deal.

Further conditions apply that SK Hynix will not provide PCIe enterprise-class solid states drives products to China’s internal market at excessive prices.

According to the Chinese regulator, Hynix must continue expanding its production of PCIe enterprise-class solid drive products and SATA enterprise class solid state drives within five years from the date of effective transaction.

This is SK Hynix’s largest acquisition. The Korean company aims to increase its ability to manufacture NAND chips that are used for data storage in smartphones and data centres servers, and to improve its pricing power.

Analysts claim that the deal will enable SK Hynix (OTC) Co Ltd to narrow its gap with Samsung Electronics, the market leader in the field of electronic products.

“China’s approval comes a bit later than what the market expected, but this is in line with the company’s goal of receiving Chinese regulatory approval within this year,” said Park Sung-soon, an analyst at Cape Investment & Securities.

Park stated that this acquisition will likely allow SK Hynix to expand its NAND solid-state drive (SSD), business for enterprise customers such as data centers. SK Hynix’s NAND SSD business was primarily focused on smartphones, PCs and other consumer goods.

SK Hynix stock closed higher by 2% than the 0.3% gain.