Shareholders of JX Holdings Inc., Japan's biggest oil refiner, and third-ranked TonenGeneral Sekiyu K.K. approved a planned April merger on Wednesday.
The new firm, to be launched April 1, will be named JXTG Holdings Inc., with sales topping more than ¥11 trillion ($93 billion) when combining the two refiners' most recent consolidated results.
JX President Yukio Uchida, 65, and TonenGeneral President Jun Muto, 57, are expected to serve as president and vice president of the new firm.
The endorsement of the merger plan at two separate extraordinary shareholder meetings in Tokyo follows approval from antitrust regulators earlier in the week.
JX's wholly owned subsidiary JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. will merge with TonenGeneral, with JX allocating 2.55 shares for each TonenGeneral share.
Ahead of the meeting, a 79-year-old JX shareholder from Tokyo said that he welcomes the merger amid shrinking demand for oil products.
Meanwhile, Idemitsu Kosan Co., the second-biggest oil refiner, and fifth-ranked Showa Shell have put off a planned merger in April 2017 given fierce opposition from Idemitsu's founding family.