Shareholders of UFJ Holdings Inc. and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. approved on Wednesday their plan to merge in October, taking a big step closer to creating the world's largest banking group in terms of assets.
The plan, which had been challenged in court by Sumitomo Trust & Banking Corp. and a new merger offer by Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., aims to rescue the debt-laden UFJ and expand the two groups' business scale to compete with big foreign players, including Citigroup.
Under the plan, the two megabanks will combine operations based on a ratio of 0.62 MTFG share to one UFJ share.