|
Dubai: Sweden's Securities Council, a private self-regulatory body financed by listed companies, ruled yesterday that Borse Dubai treated all OMX shareholders equal while making a takeover offer.
In response to a question from the OMX board if Borse Dubai treated all shareholders equal while making the takeover offer, the Council yesterday concluded that the shareholders that entered into options agreements with Borse Dubai, prior to the full bid, did not receive better terms than others.
"The ruling has come has an interpretation of the Swedish stock market rules in the context of questions raised by OMX and Nasdaq and it has clarified that Borse Dubai has given uniform offer to all shareholders and has not violated any laws," Per Larsson, chief executive officer of Borse Dubai told Gulf News.
While making a ruling on the question raised by Nasdaq on Borse Dubai's book building process, the Securities Council noted that Borse Dubai violated the generally accepted principles in the announcement of the book building process by not providing enough information.
Borse Dubai made a $4 billion all cash bid for OMX on August 17 at 230 Swedish crowns per share against Nasdaq's $3.7 billion cash and shares offer. Prior to the full scale offer, the Dubai firm had announced the acquisition of 4.9 per cent shares in OMX and further options to acquire additional 23.5 per cent shares.
The Swedish market regulator (Finansinspektionen) had concluded last month that the Dubai firm's announcement of the initial acquisition of shares and options amounted to a full-scale bid and violated a Swedish law. Although the regulator refused to take any action and accepted the Dubai offer as legitimate, Borse Dubai has appealed the ruling.
|
