U.S. approves Cookson's purchase of Foseco

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cookson Group Plc (CKSN.L: Quote, Profile, Research), a company that makes electronics and industrial ceramics and processes metals, won conditional approval from U.S. antitrust authorities on Tuesday to buy British steel mill supplier Foseco Plc FOSE.L for 497 million pounds ($987 million).

In announcing its approval, the Justice Department said the merged companies must divest Foseco's carbon bonded ceramics (CBC) business. Cookson said in January it would sell the CBC business.

Foseco supplies products to the foundry and steel industries. Cookson said it wanted to buy Foseco to strengthen its ceramics business.

In Brussels, the European Commission, Europe's top competition regulator, also approved the deal Tuesday but required the divestiture of Foseco's isostatically pressed products business and Cookson's foam filter business.

The isostatically pressed products in this deal are ceramic tubes used to direct molten steel. Foam filters are used to filter impurities out of molten steel. Both are capable of withstanding high temperatures.

($1=.5033 pound)

(Reporting by David Lawsky, Diane Bartz and Randy Mikkelsen; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)