DAYTON — DPL Inc., owner of Dayton Power and Light Co., said it has received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to distribute proxy statements to DPL shareholders in support of the company’s proposed $3.5 billion merger with energy giant AES Corp.

DPL still hasn’t scheduled the annual meeting of shareholders at which they are to vote on whether to allow the merger to go forward. DPL canceled the original shareholders’ meeting on April 27 and said then that it hoped to convene the meeting in mid-July.

DPL is working on the details and printing of the proxies to be mailed to shareholders and will announce a meeting date later, company spokeswoman Lesley Sprigg wrote in an email response Wednesday to the Dayton Daily News.

Approval by DPL shareholders is required for the merger to happen. The company also must obtain regulatory approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

If the merger takes place, it would end DPL’s existence as an independent company. The parent company and its century-old Dayton Power and Light property would become subsidiaries of AES, an Arlington, Va.-based company with electricity distribution and generation operations on five continents. The Fortune 200 company had 2010 revenues of $17 billion, compared with DPL’s $1.8 billion.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.