Shareholders approve sale of Plus to ICAP The inter-dealer broker, which is led by former Conservative Party treasurer Michael Spencer, said it expects to complete the £500,000 deal by Thursday after an expected revolt by Amara Dhari Investments, which controls over 17pc of shares in Plus's parent company Plus Markets, failed to materialise yesterday. The Kuwaiti-based investor had been a vocal opponent of the deal but abstained its vote at a shareholder meeting following discussions with the City regulator. Amara Dhari objected to the £423,000 in "settlement costs" Cyril Theret, chief executive of Plus Markets, and finance director Nemone Wynn-Evans will share if the sale of the stock exchange business is completed. Advisers, including S J Berwin and Wyvern Partners, will receive about £960,000 in fees. The payments are contractual and not part of ICAP's offer. "We were put in the very difficult position of holding the deciding vote given the way the voting had gone," Spencer Wilson, a director at Amara Dhari said. We did not want to vote yes to the deal as we considered this to be endorsing the behaviour of management. After a series of representations from the Financial Services Authority and financial queries from the floor, the only option to save shareholder value was to let the resolutions pass. News of the expected deal means that companies such as Arsenal Football Club and Quercus, the publishing house behind The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, are likely to remain listed on Plus. The troubled company faces having its stock exchange licence revoked by the FSA if the sale to ICAP is not completed by June 22. Plus Stock Exchange is home to about 150 companies worth a combined £2.3bn. ICAP said that it plans to recapitalise Plus and eventually use it as a platform for new products.