Britain's antitrust regulator tentatively approved the proposed acquisition by Arçelik, a Turkish company specializing in domestic appliances, of Whirlpool's appliances division in Europe on Thursday.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the deal was unlikely to reduce competition in the market for domestic appliances, including washing machines, dishwashers and cooking appliances.

The deal, which would see European businesses of U.S. Whirlpool and Arçelik's fold into a new company, was approved by EU antitrust regulators in October.

The European Commission announced at the time that the acquisition of sole control over the household appliance operations of the U.S. company Whirlpool in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) by Arçelik A.Ş. has been approved within the framework of EU company merger regulations.

"The commission concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns given in particular the presence of alternative suppliers in the European Economic Area (EEA) countries where both parties are active," the European Commission said in a statement.

Istanbul-based Arçelik has over 40,000 employees throughout the world and its global operations include subsidiaries in 53 countries and 31 production facilities in nine countries. It has 14 brands, namely Arçelik, Beko, Grundig, Blomberg, ElektraBregenz, Arctic, Leisure, Flavel, Defy, Altus, Dawlance, Voltas Beko, SINGER and HITACHI.