Thales and Gemalto are reporting progress in their efforts to secure regulatory approval for their proposed merger. The companies have announced that they have attained investment regulatory approval in Canada.

The news comes about a week after Thales’ announcement that it had extended the deadline for its acquisition offer of Gemalto. While the offer had been set to expire August 15th, the European Commission’s launch of an in-depth antitrust investigation last month helped to prompt the firms to significantly extend the schedule, with a final deadline now set for March 31st of next year.

Fourteen antitrust and foreign investment clearances are need from a number of countries, with only Australia’s foreign investment regulator, China, Israel, and now Canada having given the nod.

In a statement announcing the overcoming of this latest hurdle, Gemalto and Thales asserted that they “continue to work constructively with the competent antitrust authorities to obtain the remaining Regulatory Clearances in Australia, for the European Union, in Mexico, in New Zealand, in Russia, in South Africa, in Turkey, and in the United States.” The companies added that they still expect to obtain all of the necessary clearances by the end of this year, after which they could form the world’s biggest provider of hardware security modules.