(Bloomberg) -- Linde AG agreed to sell industrial-gas businesses in North and South America for $3.3 billion in an effort to win antitrust approval for its planned merger with Praxair Inc.

German gas maker Messer Group GmbH and buyout firm CVC Capital Partners will buy the majority of Linde’s gases business in North America and certain activities in South America, Munich-based Linde said Monday in a statement.

The assets being sold had sales last year of about $1.7 billion and earnings of more than $360 million. They include most of Linde’s U.S. bulk business, and its operations in Brazil, Canada and Colombia. The sale is contingent on Linde and Danbury, Connecticut-based Praxair completing their merger.

The sale is a further step toward overcoming regulatory hurdles blocking the gas supplying giants’ $47 billion planned merger after an agreement this month to sell industrial-gas plants in Europe to Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp. for 5 billion euros ($5.8 billion).

Linde shares fell 0.3 percent to 178.50 euros at 1:25 p.m. in Frankfurt. The company said last week it was in advanced talks for the sale.

Further divestitures may be needed to win regulatory approvals in other countries, Linde said. The merger partners are in discussions with authorities with the goal of completing the deal in the second half of 2018.

Linde and Praxair reached a final agreement in June last year to combine their operations. To allay antitrust concerns, the companies were putting more assets up for sale than expected, people with knowledge of the matter said in April.

The U.S. and German industrial-gas giants still need to win a green light from the European Commission, which is set to make a decision in August. Linde and Praxair have a self-imposed Oct. 24 limit for getting all regulatory approvals. They also set a cap on the size of the assets they could dispose of, amounting to combined annual revenue of no more than 3.7 billion euros, or 1.1 billion euros in earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization.

To contact the reporter on this story: Phil Serafino in Paris at pserafino@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net

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