A shareholder proposal to stop Takeda Pharmaceutical's 46 billion pound ($62 billion) buyout of Irish drugmaker Shire Plc was voted down at the Japanese company's annual general meeting Thursday.

The proposal put forth by a group of shareholders was aimed at changing Takeda's articles of incorporation to require advance shareholder approval for large acquisitions.

(Takeda President Christophe Weber speaks at a press conference in Tokyo on May 9.)

Still, a tug of war between shareholders opposed to and in favor of the buyout is likely to continue until early next year, when the company is expected to call an extraordinary meeting of shareholders to vote on issuing many new shares.

Takeda plans to finance about 50 percent of the Shire takeover through newly issued shares, which would dilute the value of existing shares.

The group behind the proposal which failed to pass at Thursday's annual meeting in Osaka had described the deal, announced in May, as too risky. The deal would be the biggest Japanese acquisition of a foreign company.

But that group, comprised of former Takeda employees and ordinary shareholders, said it has obtained support from other stockholders and will intensify efforts to block the issuance of new Takeda shares.

Takeda aims to finalize the acquisition by next June.

(Takeda shareholders attend their annual meeting on June 28.)

Takeda President Christophe Weber told the annual meeting that the company had carefully considered the takeover and was confident of its future.

The acquisition would make the Osaka-based company the world's ninth-largest pharmaceutical company with combined sales of 2.81 trillion yen.

Dublin-based Shire is known for its strength in developing drugs for hemophilia and other rare diseases, and the United States accounts for more than 60 percent of its sales.