(Reuters) - Britain's competition regulator said on Friday it was launching a probe into asset management firm BlackRock (NYSE: BLK )'s 2.55 billion pounds ($3.22 billion) acquisition of UK data firm Preqin.

The Competition and Markets Authority has set Feb. 12 as the deadline for its Phase 1 decision of the probe into the deal announced in June.

($1 = 0.7910 pounds)