Westfield shareholders approve Unibail-Rodamco $16 billion takeover offer

Shareholders of Westfield Corp, an Australian shopping mall giant, voted in favour of a $16 billion (12 billion pounds) takeover offer from Unibail-Rodamco, Westfield Chairman Frank Lowy said on Thursday, closing the biggest takeover offer of an Australian company on record.

This was the final lap for the takeover, having already received the green signal from Unibail's shareholders, boards of both companies, and Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board.

Unibail, Europe's biggest property firm, and Westfield announced the deal in December, looking to create a global leader in a sector that is grappling with the online shopping challenges led by Amazon.

Shares of Westfield had jumped nearly 15 percent on December 13 after the deal was announced.

Westfield shares were down 0.3 percent on Thursday, in line with the broader market's decline of 0.2 percent.