Deutsche Boerse formally launched a two-step process to clinch a $10.7 billion euros offer for NYSE Euronext as Nasdaq and IntercontinentalExchange edged closer to making a hostile offer. Deutsche Boerse said the tender period for shareholders to get shares in Alpha Beta Netherlands Holding NV, a holding company for a combined NYSE Euronext Deutsche Boerse company, started on Wednesday and will last until July 13.
Deutsche Boerse Chief Executive (CEO) Reto Francioni said, "The publication of the offer document is a further milestone on our way towards the planned combination." Francioni said shareholders "will benefit not only from the immediate increase in value from the expected synergies but also from attractive growth opportunities of the combined group".
Thanks in part to a strengthening euro, the valuation gap between Deutsche Boerse's offer for NYSE Euronext and that of an expected rival offer from Nasdaq OMX Group and IntercontinentalExchange Inc has narrowed. Deutsche Boerse's offer value is $10.72 billion euros, while that of Nasdaq and ICE is seen valued at around $10.8 billion.
IntercontinentalExchange Inc CEO Jeffrey Sprecher said on Wednesday NYSE Euronext's directors have effectively handed over the fate of the Big Board to its shareholders. In recent weeks the valuation gap between Nasdaq-ICE and Deutsche Boerse bids has narrowed and is almost at parity from nearly 20 percent, thanks in part to a weaker US dollar, bolstering the German exchange operator's chances of clinching a deal with New York. Deutsche Boerse said late Monday it remained committed to its agreed merger deal with NYSE.