Andrew Paynter, an executive in MyState's retail banking division, is ready to assume the role of chief executive of The Rock Building Society on Thursday, so long as the merger parties receive final court approval.This Thursday's hearing, in the Supreme Court of Queensland, will be the last hurdle for MyState in its bid to acquire The Rock, after shareholders voted in favour of the deal yesterday.The vote was a strong endorsement. More than 96 per cent of votes cast were in favour.FirstMac, which holds 12.7 per cent of The Rock and was thought, at one stage, to be a possible rival bidder, voted for the merger. MyState managing director John Gilbert said: "FirstMac has made a good investment and it will be a shareholder [in the merged company]."MyState is offering 7.75 of its shares for 10 shares in The Rock. The offer values The Rock at A$2.71 a share - a 40 per cent premium over The Rock's one-month volume weighted average price prior to the announcement of the bid in September. MyState shareholders will own 78 per cent of the merged entity. The Rock will operate as a separate brand.Gilbert said the first order of business for Paynter would be to take control of a branch refurbishment that started recently; to introduce some new products into The Rock's distribution network; to review its marketing, and to organise staff training.A big part of the rationale for the merger was the opportunity to beef up The Rock's limited offering by using MyState's more extensive products and services.MyState can add business finance products, agribusiness banking, a bigger suite of consumer lending products, wealth management and trust company services to The Rock's product set.If the deal goes ahead the combined financial institution will have a notional market value of $282 million, $2.85 billion in loans, $2.2 billion in deposits and $924 million in funds under management. It will rank as the seventh biggest non-bank approved deposit-taking institution in Australia.The Rock's annual report, issued late in September, included a chairman's report that made reference to a "disappointing" year that was "impacted by a need to address a number of significant one-off issues", including "past failures to satisfy the requirements of key regulators".Gilbert said these issues were addressed during due diligence and there were no outstanding issues with either the Australian Securities and Investments Commission or the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.