On Thursday, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Mumbai approved the merger of two film exhibition specialists, PVR Limited and INOX Leisure, by a verbal order.

The written order in this regard will be issued within a few days. Once the NCLT issues the written order, the Registrar of Companies (ROC) and the stock exchange will also file the written order, The Economic Times reported.

The NCLT’s Mumbai bench has issued the final hearing on the PVR-Inox merger on Thursday, January 12.

On March 27 last year, PVR and INOX Leisure announced the merger deal. The PVR Board of Directors and the INOX Leisure Board of Directors approved the all-stock merger of INOX and PVR at their respective meetings.

“The merger is subject to separate shareholder approval of PVR and INOX, stock exchange, SEBI and other regulatory approvals that may be required. Subject to all approvals, INOX will be merged with PVR when the merger becomes effective,” reads a joint statement by the duo.

PVR and INOX said the move is to create the largest multiplex chain in the country, operating 1,546 screens at 341 properties in 109 cities.

Ajay Bijli will be appointed managing director, and Sanjeev Kumar will be appointed executive director. Likewise, the companies said on March 27 that Pavan Kumar Jain would be appointed as non-executive chairman of the board and Siddharth Jain would be appointed as a non-executive non-independent director of the merged entity.

The combined entity will be named PVR INOX Limited, and existing screens will continue to use the PVR and INOX brands, respectively. The newly opened theatre after the merger will be named PVR INOX.

After the merger, the newly opened theatre will be named PVR INOX. According to the agreement, INOX will merge with PVR, and the share exchange ratio will be three shares of PVR for every 10 shares of INOX.

The PVR promoters will own 10.62% of the combined entity, while the INOX promoters will own 16.66%.