Time shareholders rap SGX execs?

I am delighted to see the Tokyo Stock Exchane rap the knuckles of the executives of the Singapore Exchange and remind them buying the Australian Exchange isn't a do or die affair.

Rather, given the way SGX's share price has collapsed, the merger is a do-n-die move: do it, especially if SGX raises the bid price, and it's a guaranteed one way ticket to oblivion.

For people like me, who bought into SGX at lowish prices, we would just lose our paper profits.

For the TSE, which are sitting on huge paper losses -- its 5% was bought at $10 per share, if I remember correctly -- it will certainly be worse.

Mayb it's time for SGX shareholders to start a ginger group to the tell the still new SGX CEO that enough is enough?



Feb 22, 2011
Singapore bourse shouldn't raise ASX offer, TSE warns



TOKYO - THE Singapore Exchange should not raise its already generous offer to buy Australian bourse operator ASX because that would bring unnaceptable dilution for its shareholders, said the chief executive of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which owns a 5 per cent stake in the Singapore bourse.

'The offer now looks big, and we can't be happy with the dilution if it is raised further,' Atsushi Saito said at a regular news briefing at the TSE.

SGX faces pressure to sweeten its US$7.9 billion (S$10 billion) offer for the rival Australian bourse to counter opposition to the deal from politicians and win regulatory approval, which requires an agreement to lift a 15 per cent cap on foreign ownership.

This week 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 per cent share after the merger.

Giving ground on that ratio risks turning some shareholders such as the TSE, which up to now supported the union, into opponents of the merger, which if strong enough could scuttle the first major bid at consolidation by major Asia-Pacific exchanges.

That could leave Asia lagging as bourses in Europe and the United States move ahead with new alliances and mergers. -- REUTERS