Borse Dubai on Monday suffered another reverse in its battle with Nasdaq to acquire the Nordic exchange OMX when the Swedish takeover panel ruled that it had violated best market practices, Financial Times reports.
The ruling by the Securities Council, the market self-regulatory body, follows the judgment last month by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) that Borse Dubai should have announced that it was making a takeover bid for OMX when it acquired 4.9 per cent of the exchange and options for a further 22.5 per cent.
The FSA previously found that Borse Dubai’s announcement was, in fact, the launch of a takeover bid.
The Securities Council ruled that even if Borse Dubai were to win its appeal of the FSA’s ruling, its August 9 press release violated best market practices. “Even if the press release is regarded as information about the start of a bookbuilding process, it is regarded as going against best practice in the stock market,” the council announced.
“We accept the view of the Securities Council that we ought to have included further information on the options contracts, but based on the circumstances at the time for the [press] release, particularly the fact that no decision had been made whether or not to make an offer, we believe our press releases provided the market with timely, correct and relevant information,” says Per Larson, head of Borse Dubai.