Odds begin to pile up against LSE’s offer for Canadian stock exchange
The LSE offer is worth around C$3.6bn, including a cash dividend to TMX Group shareholders. A rival offer from a bank-led Canadian consortium comes in at around C$3.8bn.
Shareholders, some still hoping for a sweetened bid, vote on the LSE offer on Thursday.
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Hide Ad“I will not decide how I will vote until these guys are finished with their games,” Richard Fogler, president of Kingwest & Company and a TMX shareholder, said last week after the two suitors raised their bids in quickfire success- ion.
A Reuters poll last week found that six of 11 TMX investors backed the Maple bid, three supported the LSE offer and two were undecided.
Maple, whose 13 members own some 6 per cent of TMX shares, stresses national pride, and the need to keep a crucial domestic asset in Canadian hands.
The LSE, billing its proposal as a merger of equals, promises to create a trans-atlantic exchange that would be a powerhouse of mining and energy listings.
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Hide AdLSE would have 55 per cent of the new company, and TMX shareholders 45 per cent.
“It’s essentially a grab that’s gone slightly wrong, and they (the LSE) can’t add dollars onto a bid, because of course, they started this as a merger of equals,” said a Canadian wealth mana- ger.
It added that the TMX, which supports the LSE offer, could delay the vote at any moment if it realises it can’t win the requisite two-thirds support.
TMX’s board recommends the LSE offer and intends to proceed with the vote.