National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) and First Gulf Bank (FGB) have said their shareholders will meet on 7 December to vote on merging the two government-controlled lenders.

The shareholders will also discuss amendments to the articles of association of the banks as the merger to create one of the largest lenders in the Middle East and African region becomes effective early next year, according to separate statements to Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), where their shares are traded.

In July, the boards of the two Abu Dhabi-based banks voted to merge the two financial giants and recommend the deal to respective shareholders.

NBAD and FGB in third week of August released the pro-forma preliminary financial information of the entity which will be established following their combination.

FGB was named as the acquirer of NBAD, despite the latter being bigger in the size in terms of assets, they said in joint statement at the time.

The deal, which was previously described as the merger of equals, is now being carried out as an acquisition by reverse acquisition of NBAD by FGB to abide by accounting policies.

According to pro-forma balance sheet, the consolidated assets of the merged entity would be worth almost AED661bn ($180bn), which is higher than the AED642bn announced previously.

The consolidated net profit of the new bank is reported at AED5.3bn, which is the total of NBAD’s AED2.65bn and FGB’s AED2.66 net profits, at the end of first half of this year.