Paris (AFP)
The pan-European stock exchange operator Euronext has reached an agreement with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) to buy the Milan Stock Exchange from it for 4.33 billion euros, the two groups announced Friday in separate statements.
At the end of July, the LSE, one of the European heavyweights of the markets, had indicated that it was considering selling the Milan Stock Exchange in order to obtain the green light from Brussels to acquire the American financial data group Refinitiv for 27 billion of dollars.
As part of this transaction, Euronext will also acquire the Italian platform MTS, the main electronic government bond market in the euro zone, allowing it to enter sovereign debt trading.
"The acquisition of Borsa Italiana marks a decisive step in Euronext's strategic plan" for 2022, welcomed its boss, Stéphane Boujnah, quoted in a press release, saying that it made it possible to "create the backbone of the 'Union of Capital Markets in Europe'.
The operator, which already manages the Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Dublin and Oslo stock exchanges, announced last year that it was open to acquisitions.
In mid-September, the LSE had granted its favors to Euronext to start exclusive negotiations, at the same time rejecting the offers of the Swiss operators SIX Group and German Deutsche Börse.
Euronext is not launching an assault on the Italian Stock Exchange on its own, since it has filed an offer in partnership with the Italian Caisse des Dépôts and the Intesa Sanpaolo bank.
At a time when the European group is focusing on stock exchanges, the LSE intends to move away from it to strengthen itself on the financial data market thanks to its merger project with Refinitiv, made public during the summer of 2019.
New York-based Refinitiv is one of the world's leading providers of data for market professionals, with more than 40,000 corporate clients in 190 countries.
However, the transaction could fall apart if it is not concluded by May 31, 2021.
© 2020 AFP