Brookfield Corp and Brookfield Wealth Solutions have received board approval to move ahead with a plan to simplify their corporate structure under a single publicly traded company.

The companies announced that the transaction, first unveiled earlier this month, would consolidate the businesses under a new entity, Brookfield Corporation, which trades on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the symbol BN.

The move marks another step in Brookfield’s push to streamline its growing insurance and wealth operations, including its expanding Bermudian-based reinsurance platform.

Under the proposed arrangement, all class A limited voting shares of Brookfield Corp and all class A exchangeable limited voting shares of Brookfield Wealth Solutions will be exchanged on a one-for-one basis for shares in the combined company.

The transaction will be carried out through a court-approved plan of arrangement and will require approval from shareholders of both companies at their annual general meetings on July 16.

Brookfield said the deal is expected to be completed on a tax-deferred basis for United States and Canadian shareholders.

In a quarterly letter to shareholders, chief executive Bruce Flatt said the combination would allow Brookfield to “fully utilise” an additional $145 billion in permanent capital, including cash, equities, real estate and other investments, to support the growth of its insurance operations.

“Simply stated, few other insurance businesses in the world will have access to this scale of excess capital to add to their equity base,” Mr Flatt said.

The company stated that Brookfield Corporation is expected to continue paying quarterly distributions equivalent to those currently paid by the two existing entities.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year.