Shareholders in Domain have overwhelmingly voted in favour of selling the online property classified company to US-based property group CoStar.
The deal, approved by 99.98% of the votes cast by Domain shareholders, is scheduled to be implemented on Wednesday, August 27.
The Foreign Investment Review Board last week approved the sale and the deal goes before a court on Wednesday this week, the last hurdle.
The $3 billion takeover will deliver to Nine Entertainment, from its 60% holding in Domain, $1.4 billion in cash, net of capital gains tax.
Nine intends to distribute a portion of that to shareholders via a fully franked special dividend of between 47 and 49 cents a share.
Nine argues that, despite losing the classifieds in return for a pile of cash, it will continue to be Australia’s “largest locally owned media” company with a unique portfolio of assets across streaming and broadcast television, radio, publishing, digital and data.
And the company has raised the possibility of using some of the funds for “investment opportunities” both internally and externally.
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