By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
Jan 6 (Reuters) – Comerica shareholders on Tuesday approved a $10.9 billion sale to larger rival Fifth Third Bancorp, the two companies said, ignoring an activist hedge fund’s calls to block the deal after having initially urged the bank to put itself up for sale.
At the special meeting, a preliminary tally showed 97% of Comerica shareholders voted in favor of the deal while 2.2% voted against it, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The merger, which the companies said is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, will create the ninth-largest U.S. bank, with combined assets of $290 billion.
The chief executives of both companies praised the shareholder vote and said the combination will benefit customers and investors.
Reuters first reported news of the shareholder vote earlier on Tuesday.
HoldCo, which was seen as a catalyst for the deal, late last year urged investors to scuttle the planned merger and took the companies to court in Delaware, arguing that the plans came together hastily and that potentially better options were not fully considered.
HoldCo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru and Svea Herbst-Bayliss in New York, Editing by Dawn Kopecki and Matthew Lewis)
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