The respective shareholders of Farmland Partners Inc. and American Farmland Co. approved the companies' pending merger, which should be finalized Feb. 2.

Under the stock-for-stock deal, Farmland Partners will acquire all of American Farmland's outstanding common shares to form what the companies said would be the largest public farmland REIT in the U.S.

At Farmland Partners' special shareholder meeting, about 96.22% of the outstanding common shares represented voted in favor of the issuance of the company's common shares in conjunction with the merger. Meanwhile, about 99.64% of the votes cast at American Farmland's special meeting were in favor of the transaction.

The deal, which remains subject to other closing conditions, will result in the automatic conversion of each American Farmland common share into the right to receive 0.7417 Farmland Partners common shares. Each American Farmland operating partnership unit will also be automatically converted into the right to receive 0.7417 Farmland Partners OP units.