Ending a year long saga, Chinese regulators have officially approved the sale of Toshiba’s memory chip business to the Bain consortium for US$18 billion.

The news ceases concerns that Chinese officials may stall the deal, citing current trade-related tensions with the US.

Toshiba has declared it expects the deal to be completed by June 1st.

An anti-monopoly review was conducted to approve Bain’s purchase of ‘Toshiba Memory’ – the world’s second largest NAND chip manufacturer.

The Bain consortium includes US-based Apple, Dell, Kingston and Seagate, plus Korean chip maker SK Hynix.

In a statement, Bain Capital confirmed “all antitrust approvals have now been received”, with significant capital investment expected to “develop and grow semiconductor technology”.

The news provides hope that Chinese officials may approve Qualcomm’s purchase of NXP.