Deutsche Boerse clinches US$9.7bil NYSE Euronext deal

FRANKFURT: Germany's Deutsche Boerse AG pulled off a US$9.7bil takeover of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) group as shareholders brushed off misgivings about the deal to create the world's largest exchange operator.

The tie-up between NYSE Euronext and the German exchange broke the trend of collapsing megadeals among other exchange operators but faces formidable antitrust hurdles on both sides of the Atlantic.

More than 80% of Deutsche Boerse shareholders tendered their stock as part of the deal, the company said in a regulatory statement on Thursday based on a preliminary count.

The new company will combine the operator of stock exchanges in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon with the company that runs the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the Eurex derivatives platform.

“This is important for future deals,” said Richard Repetto, an exchanges analyst at Sandler O'Neill in New York.

“The global exchange consolidation movement has faced some headwinds. If this deal didn't pass the shareholder test, global consolidation would have come to a screeching halt.”

The deal was first announced in February amid a flurry of cross-border deal attempts by exchanges eager to cut costs and diversify in the face of fast-eroding market shares in their traditional stock-trading businesses.

The London Stock Exchange Group Plc and Canada's TMX Group Inc headed into negotiations, as did the Singapore Exchange Ltd and Australia's ASX Ltd. One by one, however, those and other deals collapsed, shattered by political and nationalistic resistance.

NYSE Euronext itself was the target of an unsolicited counterbid in April from archrival Nasdaq OMX Group Inc and its commodities partner, IntercontinentalExchange Inc. - Reuters