HOT Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

 By Eva Dou 
 

BEIJING - China's Ministry of Commerce said Friday it has extended its antitrust review of Marriott International Inc.'s roughly $13.6 billion takeover of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. due to the complexities of the case.

Chinese antitrust regulators launched their review on April 11, but extended it May 11 and again on Aug. 9, said Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang in a press conference Friday, according to the official online transcript.

The review is taking longer "due to the complexity of the relevant products and regions involved in the deal," he said.

The two companies announced earlier this month that they had given Chinese regulators more time to review the deal, but said they didn't believe it posed anticompetitive issues to China.

The transaction has received clearances from regulators representing more than 40 countries, including the U.S. and the European Union, with China the remaining hurdle to closing the deal.

--Yang Jie contributed to this article.

Write to Eva Dou at eva.dou@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 02, 2016 04:41 ET (08:41 GMT)

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