Australia's Afterpay Ltd shares dropped 5% in early trade on Thursday, after the buy-now-pay-later giant delayed a shareholder meeting to vote on its $29 billion deal with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey led Square Inc.

Afterpay added that the completion of the country's biggest deal in history was still expected to be in the first quarter of 2022.

The scheme meeting, which was scheduled for Dec. 6, will be delayed until the new year, with U.S. fintech firm Square expecting an approval from the Bank of Spain by mid-January, Afterpay said.

Square changed its name to Block Inc on Wednesday, as it looks to expand beyond its payment business and into new technologies like blockchain.

Earlier this week, Dorsey had stepped down as chief executive officer of Twitter.

Shares of Afterpay fell 5.5% in early trade to its lowest since July 30. Square closed 6.6% lower on Wednesday.

  - Reuters