The Singapore Exchange (SGXL.SI) chief said on Tuesday he did not plan to offer more incentives to win control of Australian bourse operator ASX (ASX.AX) despite pressure to sweeten its US$7.7 billion ($9.8 billion) bid.
“We are not considering further concessions,” Magnus Bocker, the chief executive of SGX, said at the Reuters Future Face of Finance Summit.
SGX faces mounting pressure from Australian politicians and regulators as it seeks an agreement to lift a 15% cap on foreign ownership.
Last month, SGX agreed to allow ASX to have an equal number of directors in the merged company in an attempt to counter calls for the merger to be scrapped. Yet, under the agreement, SGX will still own a 64% share after the merger.
When asked if he was considering any other mergers or acquisitions, the 49-year-old Swede said: “Nothing I am contemplating”.
Bocker, who was speaking at the Reuters office in Singapore, said he would be visiting Sydney, Melbourne and Perth in Australia this week and next to campaign for the ASX deal.
“I am off to Sydney in two hours. Melbourne on Thursday. Back on Friday. Then Perth next week,” said Bocker, who joined SGX from NASDAQ OMX (NDAQ.O) in December 2009.
SGX and ASX are teaming up to cut costs, fight growing pressure from alternative trading platforms and avoid being left behind in a wave of stock exchange mergers globally.
Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE) revealed on Feb. 9 that it was in talks to buy NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) to create the world’s largest trading powerhouse. On the same day, the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) said it had agreed to buy Canadian market operator TMX (X.TO).
Shares in SGX closed up 0.9% on Tuesday before the interview, while ASX ended 1.3% lower.
Bocker has long had a reputation as a dealmaker. He joined Swedish exchange operator OMX in 1986 and made his mark bringing together seven Nordic bourses to form OMX AB, which he led between 2003 and 2008.
He was subsequently involved in the sale of OMX to NASDAQ in 2008, and took over as CEO of the combined entity.
“I don’t see myself as a dealmaker. I see myself as an operator. I like building, changing and growing exchanges.”
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