LONDON (Reuters) - London Stock Exchange Group (L:LSE) said on Wednesday that its shareholders have approved the company's planned $2.7 billion (£1.68 billion) takeover of U.S. index compiler and asset management firm Frank Russell.
Almost all of LSE's investors who voted backed the deal, which is being part-funded by a $1.6 billion rights issue, at a general meeting held on Wednesday.
The number of votes cast represented just over 80 percent of the company's issued share capital, the LSE said.
Europe's oldest independent bourse unveiled plans in June to buy Frank Russell from owners Northwestern Mutual, seeking to move deeper into the U.S. financial services market where half of global assets under management are based.
The deal will give LSE, owner of indexes business FTSE, third place in the booming global market for exchange traded funds (ETFs) - low-cost funds giving an alternative to active fund management - after market leaders S&P Dow Jones and MSCI (N:MSCI).
It will create an index compiler with around $9.2 trillion of assets benchmarked against the performance of its indexes.
LSE has said it is reviewing Frank Russell's asset management arm to determine how it fits with the enlarged group.
The transaction is expected to be completed late in the fourth quarter of 2014 or early in the first three months of 2015.
(Reporting by Clare Hutchison; Editing by Pravin Char)