Business | Markets
Borse Dubai in talks to invest in Taiwan exchange
As much as 25% of TSE could be sold to foreign bourses.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 01:24 March 7, 2008
Taiwan: Taiwan's main stock market held talks on selling shares to Borse Dubai, which has been expanding with purchases of Nasdaq OMX Group and the London Stock Exchange Group.
Taiwan Stock Exchange plans an initial public offering in early 2009, chairman Wu Rong-I said yesterday's in Vietnam's financial centre, Ho Chi Minh City. The exchange plans to sell as much as 25 per cent of itself to foreign bourses, and has held initial talks with the New York Stock Exchange, Deutsche Boerse, the CME Group, and Nasdaq OMX, it said in December.
"We have had talks with the Dubai bourse," Wu said. "I met the chairman. We want to sign a memorandum of understanding first, and we both want to go further."
The discussions were held at a meeting of the World Federation of Exchanges in Cairo last month, Wu said.
Borse Dubai owns Dubai's two stock exchanges, is a shareholder in London Stock Exchange and will get an almost 20 per cent stake in Nasdaq OMX, the world's second-largest stock exchange by volume of shares traded, through a joint takeover of Nordic stock market operator OMX.
"We don't deny we were in general dialogue" with the Taiwanese exchange, Borse Dubai chairman Eisa Kazim said yesterday.
General interest
Kazim said in August that Borse Dubai has a "general interest in expanding" and is "looking at other stock exchanges". The Dubai exchange may bid for a stake in the Karachi Stock Exchange should the Pakistani bourse be put up for sale, he said at the time.
The Taiwan Stock Exchange is waiting for an amendment to current laws to allow it to merge with the Gretai Securities Market for bonds and unlisted stocks, the Taiwan Futures Exchange and the Taiwan Depository & Clearing, Wu said. After that, shares may be sold to as many as three foreign companies, he said.
"We hope that this amendment can be quickly passed, perhaps first quarter or second quarter at the latest," he said. After consolidating the markets, the exchange will "launch an IPO, maybe at the beginning of next year".
The Taiwan Stock Exchange may be interested in buying shares in the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange when Vietnam's main bourse holds an initial public offering, Wu said.
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