US clears way for Dubai-Nasdaq OMX bid

Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. said on Monday that it has obtained official US clearance for Borse Dubai's investment in Nasdaq, which will allow Nasdaq to proceed with its plan to combine with Nordic exchange OMX.

Published: 1 January 2008 08:33 CET

As a result of the approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment, Nasdaq said it has formally withdrawn its stand-alone offer for OMX, and that it supports Borse Dubai’s all-cash 265 kronor (49.95 dollars) per share offer for Stockholm’s OMX.

Once Borse Dubai owns at least 67 percent of the shares of OMX, it will transfer all OMX shares it owns to Nasdaq. At the same time, Borse Dubai will make a minority investment in Nasdaq and Nasdaq will make a minority investment in Dubai International Financial Exchange.

Borse Dubai is the holding company for Dubai International Financial Exchange and Dubai Financial Market.

The cash offer by Borse Dubai values OMX at 32 billion kronor (4.9 billion dollars).

OMX operates exchanges in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Reykjavik, Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius.