LONDON (AP) — Shareholders of Lloyds Group TSB voted overwhelmingly in favour of a government-brokered takeover of rival HBOS PLC yesterday.

Lloyds investors backed the deal, with 95.98 percent of votes in favour, at a meeting in Glasgow, despite a union protest outside the venue.

Employees of both banks, which total some 145,000, are worried there will be hefty job cuts if the deal goes ahead. The United union wants to ensure job security and pension arrangements.

Two senior banking executives — George Mathewson and Peter Burt, former chief executives of Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland — had also tried to scupper the deal, calling on HBOS to abandon it earlier this month.

The pair argued that HBOS can survive as a stand-alone bank, drawing on funds on offer under the government's 37 billion ($55 billion) pound bailout package for banks, which was announced after the takeover deal had already been put in motion.

But investors appeared to be won over by the certainty of the deal — a rejection would have left HBOS vulnerable to nationalisation and Lloyds under pressure.

The government waived competition rules to allow the deal, which will create a banking giant with some 3,000 branches across Britain.

HBOS shareholders do not vote on the deal until December, but have been warned by chairman Dennis Stevenson that the bank could be nationalized if the deal falls through.

Lloyds investors also backed plans to raise £5.5 billion ($8.3 billion) through the issue of new shares and special preference shares to strengthen Lloyds' balance sheet.