Fedex, TNT Win US Approval To Merge

By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Tennessee-based Fedex Corp and Dutch counterpart TNT Express have won U.S. antitrust permission to merge, according to a listing of approved deals the Federal Trade Commission issued on Tuesday.

The European Union has yet to sign off on the proposed transaction, although the companies have said they received assurances that EU antitrust regulators would allow it to go forward.

The companies announced in April that Fedex would buy TNT for 4.4 billion euros ($4.8 billion) in order to better compete in Europe. The deal should catapult FedEx to second place in Europe behind Deutsche Post's DHL.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Dan Grebler)