The merger of Carnival Corporation and P&O Princess Cruises plc is now a done deal. The shareholders of P&O Princess have approved the merger (Carnival shareholders did likewise a few days ago).

Of 693,741,420 shares, 408,679,183 voted for, 1,118,826 voted against, and 3,854,706 abstained... An overwhelming "yes" vote!

At the end of the deal, the company will be Carnival Corporation and Carnival plc, which will operate as one (the two companies will remain for the purposes of a dual US/UK stock listing).

Lord Sterling will retire as P&O Princess chairman at the end of the transaction but has been named Honorary Life President of P&O Cruises.

Press release for EGM Results here, and announcing Lord Sterling's new (permanent, "figurehead") position here.

I for one am happy to see the deal complete... I would have preferred for them to stay independent, but at the same time, I think that this is by far the lesser of two evils compared with both the proposed RCCL DLC and of course outright takeover by Carnival (the first counter-attempt).