BG Group shareholders voted on Thursday to approve the company’s merger with Royal Dutch Shell.
According to BG Group, 99.55 percent of votes, representing 2,081,924,659 shares, were cast in favor of the merger while 0.45 percent of votes, representing 9,360,565 shares, were cast against the merger.
The deal won approval from Shell shareholders earlier this week.
The merger must now receive court approval and remains subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain customary conditions.
A court hearing to approve the merger is expected to take place on February 11, 2016, BG Group said.
The merger is currently expected to close on February 15.
Shell agreed in April to acquire UK-based BG Group for about $70 billion in cash and shares.
BG shareholders will receive 383 pence in cash and 0.4454 Shell B shares per BG share, a 52 percent premium over the company’s closing price on April 7.
Shell plans to cut 2,800 jobs as part of a broader restructuring plan to be implemented after the merger is complete.
Those reductions are in addition to Shell’s previously announced plans to shrink its headcount and contractor positions by 7,500 globally.
Shell said in December it anticipates the restructuring will be needed to achieve the merger’s expected benefits, including previously disclosed pre-tax synergies of $3.5 billion.
Shell said last week that “preparations are well advanced for $30 billion of asset sales in 2016-18” assuming the successful completion of the BG merger.
The merger is expected to grow Shell’s proved oil and gas reserves by 25 percent and raise its production by 20 percent.
Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in a conference call last year that BG Group CEO Helge Lund will most likely leave his post once the acquisition is complete.
Lund has not commented on his plans following the completion of the merger.
Prior to joining BG Group in 2014, Lund served as CEO at Norway’s Statoil for ten years.
Several BG Group executives including COO Sami Iskander, general counsel Tom Melbye Eide and current head of strategy and business development Katie Jackson are expected to stay on board after the merger, Bloomberg said last November.
