Britain's competition watchdog on Wednesday approved Norway's Adevinta's planned acquisition of U.S. e-commerce group Ebay's classified ads business.

The Competition and Markets Authority said in a statement it would not refer the acquisition or Ebay's purchase of a minority stake in Adevinta to further investigation.

The two companies said in March they planned to sell three smaller British units in order to secure regulatory approval for a long-planned tie-up of their global classified ads businesses.

Adevinta in a statement welcomed the CMA move, and said it targeted completion of the acquisition in the second quarter this year, subject to regulator approval in Austria.