The shareholders of US platinum producers Stillwater have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a takeover by the Norilsk Nickel Group.

Just under 83 per cent of the votes cast approved of the move, it was announced yesterday (June 16th).

On the same day, the Federal Trade Commission told both companies that it had granted early termination of the usual waiting period for the transaction. Previously the takeover had been jeopardised by an investigation in to whether it could break monopoly laws.

When the transaction is closed - expected to be later this month - Stillwater will issue 45,463,222 new shares of its common stock to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel in return for $100,000,540 in cash and 877,000 ounces of palladium.

Stillwater's chairman and chief executive, Francis McAllister, commented: ' The Board of Directors is pleased that the shareholders approved the agreement and welcomes the Norilsk Nickel investment in light of the current economic situation and low platinum group metal (pgm) prices.

'With this transaction, we will be able to reduce the company's debt and use the additional capital to improve our operations'.

The news will also be welcome in the diplomatic world, as Presidents Bush and Putin are to meet in St Petersburg this month. The merger of Stillwater, the only producer of pgms in America, and Norilsk is one of the items on the agenda for discussion.