Shares of OMX AB, the Nordic region’s biggest stock exchange, rose 8.3 percent after the Sunday Times said Dubai may bid for the company, rivaling an agreed $3.67 billion offer from Nasdaq Stock Market Inc, Bloomberg reports.
OMX shares climbed 16.5 kronor to 216 kronor in Stockholm, higher than Nasdaq’s May 25 bid of 208.1 kronor a share. OMX, operator of seven Scandinavian and Baltic exchanges, has a market value of 26.1 billion kronor ($3.81 billion).
OMX is the latest target in an industry that had at least $64 billion of acquisitions and joint ventures worldwide since 2005, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Dubai International Financial Center, which last year bought a stake in Euronext NV, would increase its stock-exchange investments with a bid for OMX.
“This is part of a trend of institutions in the Gulf with a lot of liquidity seeking international acquisitions in their field that have a high profile,” says Randa Azar-Khoury, chief economist for National Bank of Kuwait SAK, Kuwait’s biggest lender, in an interview today.
Dubai International Financial Center is a state-run business park in the United Arab Emirates that owns the Dubai International Financial Exchange.
Nasdaq agreed to buy OMX for 25.1 billion Swedish kronor in cash and stock. OMX would give Nasdaq a foothold across the Atlantic to compete with NYSE Group Inc., which acquired Euronext NV, Europe’s No. 2 exchange, last month.