Mumbai: Hindustan Lever has received shareholders'' approval for changing its name to Hindustan Unilever, the company said in a communique to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

HLL, India''s largest FMCG company, said its annual general meeting (AGM) on May 18 passed the resolution entailing the change of its name to Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL),

HLL had, in February, said that the proposed name change would provide the optimum balance between maintaining the heritage of HLL and the future benefits and synergies of global alignment with the corporate name of Unilever.

"The name change is a significant milestone. It retains the company''s continued commitment toward its local roots while leveraging the global scale and reputation of Unilever with its consumers and other stakeholders in India." HLL chairman and Unilever Asia AMET (Africa, Middle East and Turkey) president Harish Manwani had said.

Unilever set up its first Indian subsidiary Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company in 1931, followed by Lever Brothers India Limited (1933) and United Traders Limited (1935). These three companies merged to form HLL in November 1956.