Some 99.27% of Sunway’s shareholders voted in favor of the bid at an extraordinary general meeting on Thursday, marking a major step for the conglomerate, which launched the takeover offer on Jan. 12.

Cheah said Sunway was confident it could unlock greater value from IJM’s assets under a combined entity, adding that the offer would allow IJM shareholders to remain invested in the merged group through Sunway shares, while also receiving 10% of the consideration in cash.

Jeffrey Cheah, chairman and founder of Sunway Group. Photo from the company’s website

The offer, however, has faced pushback from IJM’s independent adviser, which urged shareholders to reject the bid, saying the offer price represented a discount of between 46.1% ‌and ⁠51.4% to the estimated value of IJM shares.

Opposition to the deal also intensified after Malaysia’s largest asset manager, Permodalan Nasional, said on March 16 it would not accept Sunway’s voluntary takeover offer for its 13.5% stake in IJM.

Cheah said Sunway would ⁠not revise its offer, calling it the company’s “best offer” and saying it would walk away if shareholders did not accept it.

The proposed acquisition has also come under scrutiny ⁠from Malaysia’s anti-graft agency, which said it was probing whether there were any elements of corruption, abuse of power or governance breaches linked to the ⁠proposed transaction.

Cheah said he had received a letter from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission clearing the deal.