Australia has dealt a potentially fatal blow to the Singapore exchange’s planned A$8.4bn ($8.7bn) takeover of its Australian counterpart, citing national interest grounds.
Wayne Swan, treasurer, startled the market on Tuesday by saying that he was “disposed” to reject the deal, revealing his position before the end of a standard 30-day review by the country’s foreign investment regulator. However, he stressed that his view was preliminary.
A successful takeover would have created Asia’s second- largest exchange by the number of listings, behind the Bombay Stock Exchange but ahead of exchanges in Tokyo and Hong Kong. It also comes as a wave of mergers and acquisitions sweeps the sector, most recently Nasdaq OMX and IntercontinentalExchange’s $11.3bn offer last week for NYSE Euronext.