The European Commission said the approval of the acquisition was conditional on the sale of Morpho's payment smart card business in France.

Advent has offered to divest Morpho's French subsidiary CPS to meet the Commission's requests.

"In view of the remedies proposed, the Commission concluded that the proposed transaction, as modified, would not significantly reduce competition," the EU executive said in a statement.

The Commission's decision is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)