The lengthy procedure for securing the merger of Marac Finance with a couple of building societies got through yet another hurdle today with the High Court allowing the final orders for the merger to make a $2.2 billion worth of financial services group with the aspirations of being a bank.

The shares of the merged group holding company, Building Society Holdings Limited (BSHL), shall get issued on 7th January to the shareholders of Ashburton's CBS Canterbury shares and Auckland's Southern Cross Building Society.

CBS Canterbury will remove from the list the NZAX when trading closes today and trading in Auckland's Southern Cross shares will also stop.

Pyne Gould Corporation, the parent company of Marac, will keep the balance of shares, i. e. 72% of the 300 million shares in BSHL, and wishes to distribute most of them to its shareholders in the former half of 2011 and sell a little part to institutions.

The listing of BSHL will most likely happen on 31st January.

Jeff Greenslade, the managing director-designate of BSHL, said that the staff and boards of all the three organisations have put in a lot of efforts to make this merger successful.