Official reports have confirmed that AMP Ltd. of Australia has send in an application to the competition regulator of New Zealand to gain clearance to purchase the Australian and New Zealand assets of AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd., as AMP prepares itself to launch a bid for the wealth management and life insurance firm.

On Monday, the New Zealand Commerce Commission shared that it is currently in the process of considering the application and might just be announcing a decision by May 14.

The clearance application has followed the decision announced by Australia's competition regulator that it would oppose the A$13.29 Billion acquisition bid sent in by National Australia Bank Ltd. for AXA APH. Also, the regulator said that it would not oppose an AMP takeover, which paved the way for AMP to come back to fray.

Back in December, the lower cash-and-shared bid put in by AMP was rejected by the board of AXA APH in favor of the NAB bid. While AMP had offered as many as 0.6896 of its own shares in addition to A$1.92 for each AXA APH share, NAB had sent in a bid of A$6.43 cash or 0.1745 of its own shares plus A$1.59.

More confident of putting in a better bid this time around, AMP had sent in the application last week.

"It's just another step in the approvals process so we are taking it one step at a time. We have said that we are still interested in AXA APH and that it is still attractive", a spokeswoman said.