The French Finance Ministry gave the green light yesterday to the largest foreign takeover of a French company, clearing a bid by Germany's Allianz for insurer AGF. AGF and Allianz welcomed the long-awaited clearance of the agreed offer, which values France's second-largest insurance company at 62 billion francs (£7.4 billion).

The Financial Markets Council (CMF) regulator is expected to rule on the acceptability of the bid on February 11th and the bid is expected to open around February 15th.