Two firms that provide research and advice to institutional investors have recommended that the shareholders of Progress Energy and Duke Energy vote in favor of the proposed merger of the two companies.

Jim Rogers, Duke's CEO, touted the recommendations made by ISS Proxy Services and Glass, Lewis & Co. in a release.

Such firms can have considerable influence in shareholder votes, mainly because the institutional investors who are their clients typically have much larger stock holdings than other investors. About 800 institutional investors own about 52 percent of the shares of Progress, for example. 

Both Duke and Progress will hold votes on the merger at shareholder meetings in Raleigh and Charlotte on Aug. 23. 

The N.C. Utilities Commission plans public hearings on the merger starting Sept. 20. Approvals are also required from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and U.S. Department of Justice.

If approved, the merger would create the largest electric utility in the country.

Opponents of the planned merger between Duke Energy and Progress Energy want the N.C. Business Court in Raleigh to delay next month's shareholder vote on the corporate merger.

The vote by shareholders of both power companies, scheduled for Aug. 23, is one of the key milestones in a merger that would create the nation’s largest electric utility with 7.1 million customers in six states.

If the business court were to agree with the merger opponents and postpone the vote, the decision could set back the timeline for the merger by several months or more.

A week after dozens of protesters livened up Duke Energy's annual shareholders meeting in Charlotte, Progress Energy's annual meeting this morning in Raleigh was an understated affair without a hint of political theater.

Progress CEO Bill Johnson spent most of the session on formalities, fielding a mere three questions from a handful of shareholders in attendance. The auditorium was half-full at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, mostly attended by Progress employees and company officials.

Progress and Duke are in the midst of a corporate merger that will form the nation's largest electric utility to be headquartered in Charlotte and headed by Johnson. The imminent merger notwithstanding, the politically agile Johnson has so far kept himself out of the crosshairs.