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Dubai: Borse Dubai, the holding company for the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX), said it had bought 4.9 per cent of shares in Swedish exchange OMX and had agreements for another 22.5 per cent.
It said if it exercised all of its options, it would hold 27.4 per cent of OMX, which is being acquired by Nasdaq for $3.7 billion.
Borse Dubai said earlier it was looking to buy a 25 per cent stake in OMX.
In a release, the company said it is in the book-building process with selected investors, and may buy OMX ordinary shares at a price of Swedish kronor 230 per unit, as well as enter into options for OMX ordinary shares for the same amount.
"Borse Dubai is not obligated to make such purchases or enter into options unless it thereby acquires, in aggregate, an interest in at least 25 per cent of OMX AB shares," the company said.
Borse Dubai chairman Eisa Kazim was unreachable by phone and OMX spokeswoman Heidi Wendt refused to comment on Dubai's move.
Dubai's plan to take a stake in OMX is not being seen yet as a prelude to a full-blown bid to acquire 100 per cent of the bourse.
"I do not think that is what it is about. The rationale behind it is twofold. One is that they want to use the [spare] money that they have in their banks and the other is to share OMX's knowledge and experience in running stock exchanges," Zahed Chowdhury, head of research of Deutsche Bank in Dubai, told Gulf News.
He said Borse Dubai may not be interested in running the whole business of OMX.
Nasdaq urged OMX shareholders not to take any action with respect to the conditional offer by Dubai for a minority stake. Nasdaq and OMX had decided in May to combine the two companies to form The Nasdaq OMX Group in a deal valued at 25.1 billion kronor ($3.7 billion).
Nasdaq said it remains fully committed to its recommended offer for full ownership of OMX.
It had offered 208.1 kronor per share. It agreed to pay 94.3 kronor per share in cash and exchange each OMX share for 0.502 of its new share.
OMX operates the Nordic and Baltic bourses of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Iceland, Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius.
London's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported in mid-July that the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) was set to make a bid for OMX.
It said Dubai was believed to have secured funding to bid 250 kronor per OMX share, 20 per cent more than Nasdaq offer.
According to that report, dealers expected the bid was more likely to come in at 230 kronor.
The paper reported the deal was "masterminded in part" by DIFX head Per Larsson, who left at OMX in 2003.
- With inputs from Reuters
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