CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France—EssilorLuxottica (Reuters: ESLX.PA) said Monday that the Chilean market regulator FNE (Fiscalía Nacional Económica) cleared the acquisition of GrandVision following the commitment to divest GrandVision’s Chilean operations under the banner Rotter Y Krauss. The FNE issued its clearance on Friday, April 9, according to the announcement. The closing of the acquisition of GrandVision is still pending the sign off from the competition authority in Turkey, as well as decisions regarding ongoing arbitration proceedings.

GrandVision’s Chilean operations will be sold to its majority shareholder, HAL Holding, in accordance with the terms of the block trade agreement entered into by HAL and EssilorLuxottica on July 30, 2019. The carve-out is subject to and will close simultaneously with the closing of the transaction, according to the announcement.

EssilorLuxottica also acknowledged that on April 6, 2021, Amsterdam’s Court of Appeal rejected its request to secure certain GrandVision documents related to the international retailer’s operations during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The EssilorLuxottica statement said the court’s ruling was “due mainly to the disclosures recently ordered in the [separate] arbitral proceedings brought by HAL and GrandVision.”

VMAIL initially reported on EssilorLuxottica’s move to initiate legal proceedings against GrandVision last July, which can be read here.

The Amsterdam court’s ruling last week is separate from claims raised by GrandVision in arbitration proceedings. VMAIL reported on the arbitration filing.

Those arbitration proceedings—which still need to be resolved in order for the deal to close—are ongoing, and are “confidential and behind closed doors,” GrandVision has said.

In mid-2019, EssilorLuxottica reported that it has reached an agreement with a unit of HAL Holding to acquire HAL’s controlling interest in GrandVision in a deal analysts valued at €7.1 billion at the time, as VMAIL reported.