The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is a step away from absorbing wealth management group IWL into its broking division.
The group needs to await a final court decision before sealing the deal.
The merger of IWL into CBA’s CommSec division gained shareholder approval yesterday at a scheme meeting held in Melbourne.
Votes in favour of the merger totalled 99.70 per cent.
“I am very pleased that IWL shareholders have overwhelmingly supported the scheme,” CBA premium business services group executive Stuart Grimshaw said.
“IWL represents a sound opportunity by which to further augment CBA’s broking strategy, particularly in the provision of high end wholesale broking services,” Grimshaw said.
“We look forward to the second court hearing which is currently scheduled for the second week of November and to the successful completion of the transition.”
The scheme remains subject to the approval of the Supreme Court of Victoria at a hearing currently scheduled for Friday, November 9, 2007.
If the court approves the merger, the transaction will be implemented on November 26.
CBA announced in August that it intended to acquire the whole of IWL for more than $370 million.
In April, IWL sold its financial advisory software, Visiplan, to Iress for around $50 million. Iress also owns competitor Xplan.
