The Swiss exchange group Six made an all-cash offer of €34 per share for BME in a bid to become the third-largest financial market infrastructure group in Europe.
The tender offer, to be paid in full in cash, means valuing the governing company of the Spanish market at 2.843 billion euros. The operation has been communicated to the Spanish regulator CNMV, after both BME itself and Euronext confirmed talks for a possible purchase. However, BME indicated that its board of directors is considering the Swiss offer.
“The price could reasonably represent the current value from a financial point of view,” said BME board in a preliminary assessment.
BME also values positively the commitments assumed by Six such as maintaining the current brands of BME and BME’s current business activities, headquarters, office locations and its strategy in Spain for at least during a transitional period of 4 years. However, although the board qualifies the operation as amicable, it also opens the door to a competing offer. In fact, the operation has a penalty in case of a breakdown equivalent to 0.5% of the bid, 14 million euros “if the offer does not succeed as a consequence of a competing offer being approved and settled”.
The operation needs 50% support from BME’s capital. However, it also depends on the relevant authorizations. The purchase depends, in addition to the green light of the Spanish Competition Authorities, the approval of the Spanish market regulator CNMV.
*You can read the relevant fact sent to the CNMV here.
