NYSE unveils $10 bln plan to buy Euronext

The New York Stock Exchange unveiled an €8 billion share and cash bid for Euronext, opening the way to a possible bid battle with Deutsche Boerse just a day before an annual meeting where Euronext shareholders could decide on its future.

The proposed alliance detailed yesterday would create a mammoth transatlantic exchange with a total market capitalisation of listed companies of around $27 trillion, headquartered in New York but preserving the federal model favoured by Euronext.

The NYSE offer values Euronext stock at €8 billion euros in total or €71 per share - or €75 including ordinary and special dividends totalling €4 per share that Euronext already said it would pay to its shareholders.

The NYSE Group Inc. said its proposed merger would yield cost and revenue synergies of $375 million, which analysts said was higher than the synergies of around €250 million seen in a Euronext-Deutsche Boerse tie-up.

On Friday, the operator of the Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon bourses, and of London's Euronext.liffe derivatives exchange, had rebuffed a Deutsche Boerse offer as "nothing new." Euronext shares, which have surged nearly 70 per cent since the start of the year, lost an opening gain of four per cent to be down 3.8 per cent at €71.95 by 0917 GMT as some analysts questioned the feasibility of the NYSE synergies.

Deutsche Boerse stock dropped over seven per cent to €102.57 amid concerns it will fail to pull off a Euronext deal and will be left isolated in the consolidation spree, traders said. Deutsche Boerse yesterday denied a report in the Financial Times that it was considering a €90-per-share bid for Euronext. "The payment of a premium to the respective enterprise values is not anticipated in the proposed transaction structure," Deutsche Boerse said in a statement, but left it open how much it was willing to offer.