London Stock Exchange Group Sells Italian Exchange for $5.1 Billion, Paving Way for Refinitiv Deal
09 Octobre 2020 - 9:55AM
Dow Jones News
By Anna Isaac and Ben Dummett
London Stock Exchange Group PLC agreed Friday to sell Borsa
Italiana Group to a group led by pan-European rival Euronext NV, a
divestment meant to smooth approval of its separate, much larger,
acquisition of financial-data company Refinitiv Holdings Ltd.
The deal, priced at around 4.33 billion euros, equivalent to
$5.09 billion, is aimed at alleviating antitrust concerns about the
potential bond-trading dominance of the proposed $15 billion tie-up
between LSE and Refinitiv.
Borsa Italiana's MTS SpA is the leading bond exchange in Italy,
one of Europe's largest debt markets. Refinitiv owns bond-trading
platform TradeWeb.
"This removes a major hurdle towards the deal, and may also
generate some political goodwill," said Chris Turner, equity
analyst at Berenberg Bank ahead of Friday's announcement.
Euronext leads a consortium of buyers that includes an
investment arm of the Italian government and Italian bank Intesa
Sanpaolo SpA. The deal price includes an unspecified payment based
on cash generated by the Italian exchange through the deal's
completion, the companies said. The Italian government had
previously signaled that it would favor a deal in which Italy would
retain some ownership of the exchange.
LSE's deal to acquire Refinitiv is under review by the European
Commission.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 09, 2020 03:40 ET (07:40 GMT)
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