Shareholders of Egypt's Pioneers Holding and Beltone Financial approved a plan for Pioneers to take over Beltone, the two companies said in statements released by the stock exchange on Sunday. Pioneers's board of directors also approved a 0.05 Egyptian pound ($0.01) per share dividend, bringing the company's total dividend for 2009 to 0.35 pounds, Pioneers said.
"The extraordinary general assembly approved the steps taken to acquire Beltone Financial," a Pioneers statement said. Beltone shareholders also approved the take-over, Beltone said in a separate statement. Under a merger agreement concluded in March, the new firm will be called Beltone Holding, and Beltone's chief executive, Aladdin Saba, will be its managing director, Saba said at the time. He expected to deal to be completed by the end of May.
Under the all-share merger, first announced in November, Pioneers will issue 100 million new shares for Beltone's shares, giving Beltone's owners a stake of about 17 percent in the merged firm. Pioneers shares were down 4 percent at 1203 GMT, and the main index was down 1.3 percent.