The Taiwanese company said it now controlled a 50.8% stake in Siltronic, clearing a reduced threshold for control set under an improved offer that had been due to expire on Wednesday.

Separately, the Federal Cartel Office, Germany's antitrust watchdog, said it had no objections to the deal to create the world's second largest maker of 300-millimetre wafers behind Japan's Shin-Etsu.

The deal drives forward consolidation in an industry that supplies makers of chips used in computers, smartphones and cars, just as a demand recovery following a coronavirus pandemic slump has left carmakers short of components.

GlobalWafers twice raised its offer for Munich-based Siltronic after its initial bid was accepted by Wacker Chemie, which owns a 30.8% stake, but got the thumbs down from most minority shareholders.

Siltronic becomes the latest European semiconductor company to be sold to an Asian buyer, following chip designer Dialog Semiconductor , which agreed on Monday to be bought by Japan's Renesas for $5.9 billion.

($1 = 0.8266 euros)

(Reporting by Douglas Busvine and Alexander Huebner; Editing by Caroline Copley and Jane Merriman)