AMSTERDAM: A Dutch court on Monday blocked a ‍vote ‍on the proposed merger between ​Amsterdam-listed fertilizer maker OCI and Egypt's Orascom ⁠Construction.

The court in Amsterdam said the vote ⁠that had been ‌planned for a shareholders' meeting on January 22 could not ⁠take place, and appointed two non-executive board members to weigh if the proposal had been prepared properly.

Dutch shareholders ⁠association VEB and ​OCI shareholder Norbury Capital had taken OCI to court, after ‍it had ignored their pleas last month ​to scrap the vote.

The disgruntled shareholders said the transaction undervalued OCI, lacked a strategic rationale and had a clear conflict of interest as both companies have the Egyptian Sawiris family as their major shareholder.

The court said there was reason to ⁠believe that OCI's board members ‌had been influenced by controlling shareholder Nassef Sawiris and that the ‌deal disadvantaged ⁠minority shareholders of the company. (Reporting by Bart ⁠Meijer; Editing by Andrea Ricci)