TMX Group and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) have called off their proposed merger after it became clear they would not secure enough votes from shareholders to approve the deal.
Based on votes already cast, TMX Group said a majority of its shareholders supported the merger, but the two-thirds majority needed to approve the tie-up would not be met.
In a separate statement, the LSE said its shareholders were overwhelmingly in favor of the deal.
‘We are clearly disappointed that, despite a majority of both LSE and TMX Group shareholders voting for our recommended merger, the two-thirds approval threshold for TMX Group shareholders was not met and hence the merger will now not proceed,’ comments Xavier Rolet, the LSE’s CEO, in a statement.
TMX Group will now consider a takeover offer made by Maple Group, a collective of Canadian banks and pension funds, which was launched in a bid to stop TMX’s proposed merger with the LSE.
TMX Group will pay a C$10 mn ($10.4 mn) break fee to LSE. The Canadian exchange operator will pay an extra C$29 mn to the LSE if TMX Group is later acquired by Maple Group.
The collapse of the LSE/TMX deal is the latest exchange merger to fail, following NASDAQ’s pulled bid for NYSE and SGX’s blocked tie-up with the Australian Stock Exchange.
