The speculation and wrangling about the future of the Italian Borsa Italiana SpA have already started, even before it is decided whether the stock is sold. At the Moment, it is assumed that the Competition overseer, the European Commission will decide in October, whether or not the existing shareholders London Stock Exchange Group to sell the Borsa Italiana. The London stock exchange has Blackstone as a top priority the purchase of data provider Refinitiv from the previous owners and Reuters. Because the actual trading doesn’t make as much income as related sectors, such as financial information or the processing of the trade.
Tobias Piller
economic correspondent for Italy and Greece, with seat in Rome.
F. A. Z.
The key question now is whether the Commission in Brussels sees a conflict of interest. The would be between the occurs as the data provider on the one hand, and on the other hand, the operation of the Italian stock exchange and the associated trading platform for Italian government securities the MTS. At the end of July the London stock exchange announced that it had begun preliminary talks with the EU Commission, which could lead to the sale of the stake in MTS, or any of the Borsa Italiana as a Whole. At the same time, but warned: “There is no certainty that the London Stock Exchange Group will decide for the sale of one of the two.”
At the same time, the Italian economy newspaper “Il Sole 24 Ore claimed” that in the case of the London stock exchange, nevertheless, already a Kandidatenkür to any takeover had begun and prospects for the Italian stock exchange. 21. August would be expected to be the first offers. It is also reported that the stock exchange have commissioned a composite Euronext, based in Paris, the two banks to take care of a possible Takeover in Italy. Euronext comprises the stock exchanges in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Oslo, and had apparently made in February of this year, a bid for the Borsa Italiana. This had been rejected at the time, but with the note that Borsa Italiana is not for sale.
German stock exchange shows the interest
Now, in Milan, there are rumours that the German stock market have, in turn, instructs a Bank to deal with the prospect of a Takeover of the Borsa Italiana. The Chairman of the Board of the German stock exchange, Theodor Weimer, had confirmed the interest in Frankfurt on the Italian stock exchange in an analysts call.
According to an analysis by Credit Suisse would have to be paid in the case of a Takeover of the Borsa Italiana, based in Milan, between 3.3 and 4.3 billion euros. Only the trading platform for government securities the MTS would be for sale, this is between 270 and 340 million euros in value. To complicate the story by the policy, there are many nationalist currents, especially now in Opposition to the Lega. You would see a foreign Takeover of the Borsa Italiana as a “sellout of national interests”. At the same time, the main political group in the government coalition, the Five-star movement is trying to make the League with nationalist slogans and competition. Their members are committed “to bring the Borsa Italiana in Italy”.
