Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:28pm EDT
TORONTO, April 30 (Reuters) - Maple Group, the consortium of Canadian financial institutions bidding to buy the operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange, extended its C$3.8 billion ($3.85 billion) offer for a seventh time on Monday.
Extending its bid for TMX Group to May 31, Maple also said it had agreed to buy Alpha Trading Systems, Canada's second biggest stock trading venue, and the Canadian Depository System for Securities clearing system.
TMX also runs the TSX Venture Exchange and the Montreal Exchanges for derivatives. The buyers are waiting for several provincial regulatory bodies and the federal Competition Bureau to sign off on the deal before it can go ahead.
Maple, whose 13 members include most of Canada's biggest banks as well as pension funds, a giant insurer and other financial groups, has always said it wants to combine TMX with bank-owned Alpha. It also wants to wrap in the CDS, the clearing system for trades.
Critics have argued that the deal would concentrate too much power in the hands of a single player, creating a near monopoly of stock market trading and clearing operations, and TMX shares have consistently traded below Maple's C$50 a share offer.
TMX shares closed up 40 Canadian cents, or 0.9 percent, at C$45.10 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Monday.
- Link this
- Share this
- Digg this
- Email
- Reprints
0 comments:
Post a Comment