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FTU OKs Wachovia merger
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July 31, 2001: 12:46 p.m. ET
Wachovia to vote on First Union buy on Friday; result not seen for weeks
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Shareholders of First Union Corp. approved Tuesday its $14.6 billion buy of Wachovia Corp. with the last major hurdle in the takeover fight set for Friday.
More than 95 percent of First Union shareholders voted for the Wachovia merger, the bank said. Wachovia shareholders are set to tally their proxy for or against First Union on Friday.
"We have made significant progress toward completing the regulatory approval process, and we look forward to seeing the results from the Wachovia shareholder meeting later this week," First Union CEO Ken Thompson said.
Atlanta-based SunTrust Corp. is expected to make its last stand Friday in its battle to take over Wachovia Corp., which has rejected the bank twice. The latest came last May when Wachovia's board decided to stay with its $14.6 billion merger agreement with First Union, rebuffing suitor SunTrust (STI: up $0.20 to $69.34, Research, Estimates), which had offered an unsolicited $15.3 billion.
SunTrust then attempted to sue to stop First Union's buy of Wachovia (WB: up $0.40 to $71.11, Research, Estimates) legally. In mid-July, a North Carolina judge refused to nullify First Union's agreement to buy Wachovia, delivering a major legal setback for SunTrust to block the First Union (FTU: up $0.13 to $35.40, Research, Estimates) bid.
"We are extremely pleased about the strong endorsement First Union shareholders have given today for the merger of equals with Wachovia," Wachovia said in a statement.
Wachovia's vote Friday is not expected to go quickly and could take two-to-three weeks, a Wachovia spokesman said. Several different proxies have gone out from both Wachovia and SunTrust. Both are nearly identical except that Wachovia's are white while SunTrust's are blue. In addition, SunTrust's proxy asks that shareholders vote against the merger first.
Independent Voting Services will count the proxies and the process will include a period where either side can challenge the vote.
"We ask Wachovia shareholders to vote for the merger with First Union on the white proxy card," Wachovia said. "A failure to vote will have the same effect as a vote against the merger." 
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