(BRUSSELS) - EU and US competition regulators approved on Tuesday Reuters' takeover by Canadian rival Thomson, paving the way for the emergence of a leading financial information giant.

However, the two companies have had to agree to give up some choice assets in order to win backing from antitrust watchdogs worried that otherwise the deal could lead to a dominant share in some markets.

"This is an important step toward completing the transaction and creating what we believe will be the leading provider of information and related applications to businesses and professionals around the world," Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer said in a statement.

Glocer is to take the helm of the merged Thomson-Reuters after the 8.7 billion pound (11.5 billion euros, 17 billion dollars) deal is completed, which the companies said they expect to do in the week of April 13.

In order to appease regulator concerns, the two companies said they agreed to sell some financial databases and contracts, and transfer some key employees to rivals.

"The merging parties have offered a remedies package that provides strong safeguards that users of financial data will not be harmed by this major consolidation," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.

Reuters is to sell a copy of its databases of earnings estimates, company and economic data as well as broker research reports. Meanwhile, Thomson would sell a copy of its company financial database business.

A commission spokesman said that they could keep the underlying data only for internal uses.

"The proposed transaction would have eliminated rivalry between the two main suppliers of such databases in the marketplace," the commission said in a statement.

Reuters shares were showing a gain of 0.91 percent at 612 pence in London shortly after the announcement while Thomson eased 0.12 percent to 34.36 dollars in New York.

The deal is aimed at creating the biggest provider of financial data to trading rooms, leapfrogging current market leader and US rival Bloomberg.

Along with the privately-held US group Bloomberg, Thomson and Reuters currently dominate the market for providing financial data to banks, investment funds and other financial services firms.

At the time the deal was announced, the two companies estimated that a combined Thomson-Reuters would have 34 percent of the financial information and data market compared with Bloomberg's 33 percent.

Reuters currently controls 23 percent and Thomson 11 percent.

The takeover was announced last year amid a flurry of deal-making in the financial information market which also saw media-entertainment conglomerate News Corp. swoop on Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones.

Although 90 percent of Reuters' revenue comes from financial services, the company is more well known as a news agency with some 2,400 journalists in 131 countries.

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