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Toronto and London Stock Exchanges to merge?

Dont get it, one day you hear.. that there is no way, another day you hear that its just a matter of time before that happens..:confused:

Real estate market braces for TMX-LSE merger

The potential merger of the TMX Group, operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange, and the London Stock Exchange Group has sparked hot debate throughout the Canadian business community.

The move would create the world's biggest stock exchange, with more than 6,000 companies traded. The resulting company would be worth $6-billion and be jointly based in London and Toronto.

As Ottawa decides the deal’s fate (any merger or takeover of a Canadian company worth more than $299-million can be subject to government approval under the Investment Canada Act), experts in commercial real estate are weighing in. And while some see a favourable outcome, others are warning of negative side effects.

The merger should give both Canadian and British investors greater access to each others’ markets, particularly in real estate investment trusts, says Milton Lamb, senior vice-president of national investment for Colliers International in Toronto.

More....http://www.ctv.ca/generic/generated/static/business/article1971040.html
 
I really just started looking into the details now.

Here's an interesting bit as well from the CRBE commercial Q1 2011 report:
The potential fallout
from such a merger would stem from the
space occupied by various securities
departments which could be vacated if the
merger were to prompt head-office
operations to relocate out of the area.
Banks, law firms, accounting firms,
investment firms, and regulators all have
major operations directly tied to the
Exchange based in Toronto.
Click to expand...


Anyone else have a feeling Toronto will come out on the losing end of this deal if it goes through ?
The same applies to Montreal but to a much lesser degree.

It'll help Calgary, there are already a couple articles that hint as much, as they'll be able to access for capital abroad and they don't face much if any job loses due to job consolidation.

But for us in Toronto, is it possible that not only anything will be gained but a significant amount of jobs will be lost ? Implying softening demand for offices, condominiums and the like downtown and throughout the GTA (to a lesser degree again) ?

I don't think banks will lose much directly, if anything, they may gain a little but what about all the other players, lawyers / accountants / advisers ... if the majority of new companies (the smaller ones) now prefer to list directly through LSE (being the larger more prestigious organization that is now available).

Could this be the worst thing to happen to Toronto's job market (and this time I refer to the downtown core) since the exodus in the early 2000s due to the recession and massive relocation to the 905 (and expansion occurring there only) ?
 
Reposted from the other thread:

Indeed. This merger will likely hand control over to London.


"Under the current terms of the proposed TMX-LSE merger, LSE shareholders would own 55% of the combined company and TMX investors would hold 45%. Initially, seven of the combined entity's 15-member board seats would go to Canadians. But that number can drop to as few as three after four years.

The Ontario committee has recommended there be equal representation on the board, with the number of directors from Canada equaling the number of directors in the U.K and Italy with "no limitation in time and that this provision be written into the agreement between TMX and LSE." LSE owns Italy's Borsa Italiana."


http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...29-711324.html
Click to expand...
 
At the same time I feel maybe I'm going overboard. It's really hard to tell, we probably won't know the true impact for some years due to the reason above among many others.
In some ways I'd think Toronto would have advantages as it's cheaper to business here ... but on the other hand the safer route to take seems to be to reject things and continue on our steady pace the TSX is on.
 
The rumoured competing bid from the banks and pension funds has officially come out.

The bidding group is a consortium of nine banks and funds. The banks are Bank of Nova Scotia, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and National Bank of Canada. The pension funds are Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Quebec, Alberta Investment Management Co. and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ.

The consortium came together amid concern that TMX's planned merger with London Stock Exchange Group Plc would be bad for Canada, shifting a measure of control of the country's financial markets offshore. The banks and pension funds also believe that by combining some key assets they own with TMX, the company can be made stronger and more valuable, and then can be a buyer of foreign exchanges.
Click to expand...
 
OK, talk about conflict of interest originally :)


Anyway, I would much much prefer this ! But can they even do this ? It was a friendly merger no ? Would this go to the stock holders.
 
a competing bid is fair game and it's up to the Board of Directors of TMX whether to endorse the "highest" or fairest bid for shareholders.

I love how the British media are in a hissy fit making this competing bid look like Canada is once again "blocking" foreign takeovers. Although this competing bid has nothing to do government intervention. suck it up GB, sometimes you can be upstaged by one of your old colonies.
 
highlife said:
a competing bid is fair game and it's up to the Board of Directors of TMX whether to endorse the "highest" or fairest bid for shareholders.

I love how the British media are in a hissy fit making this competing bid look like Canada is once again "blocking" foreign takeovers. Although this competing bid has nothing to do government intervention. suck it up GB, sometimes you can be upstaged by one of your old colonies.
Click to expand...

What I like about the banks' bid is how they would like to merge not only TMX and Alpha, but also CDS, the clearing business. This is where the bread and butter of stock trading is made, and with the TMX having CDS under their umbrella they would become very profitable, very fast. That would pave the way for takeovers on our side.
 
I think the higher ups at TMX know that the London Merger would be bad for Canada and they just don't care because they can gain quickly in the short term.
 
ladyscraper said:
I think the higher ups at TMX know that the London Merger would be bad for Canada and they just don't care because they can gain quickly in the short term.
Click to expand...
Exactly. What a bunch of selfish pricks running an incredibly important Canadian institution.

I hope Ontario goes through with vetoing the merger; which I feel they will.
 
hmm, to be fair though; I think at the end they would have gotten more money from the Canadian bid!

After reading articles and listening them to speak regarding the mater I honestly believe they think this is the best thing for the TMX group (which they may be right out) and yes they don't care about Toronto / Ontario / Canada.
 
Of course TMX rejected the bid -- the merger w/LSE is a 'friendly' tie-up -- they've already agreed to merge with them. This is a 'hostile' takeover -- i.e. TMX management did not negotiate it. There was a 100% chance they would formally reject the bid, as they otherwise would have gotten sued for trying to sell the company at too low a price to 'friends'.

Now that that's over with, they can get down to hard tacks negotiations. LSE now needs to up their bid to at least close to the Maple price; Maple needs to explain how they can have quasi-monopoly control over the Canadian public exchanges without it being bad for the Canadian economy; the regulators and legislators need to figure out which way the wind is blowing with the public.

All that, and the LSE might be fielding an offer from NASDAQ, apparently.

Stay tuned...
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
Of course TMX rejected the bid -- the merger w/LSE is a 'friendly' tie-up -- they've already agreed to merge with them. This is a 'hostile' takeover -- i.e. TMX management did not negotiate it. There was a 100% chance they would formally reject the bid, as they otherwise would have gotten sued for trying to sell the company at too low a price to 'friends'.

Now that that's over with, they can get down to hard tacks negotiations. LSE now needs to up their bid to at least close to the Maple price; Maple needs to explain how they can have quasi-monopoly control over the Canadian public exchanges without it being bad for the Canadian economy; the regulators and legislators need to figure out which way the wind is blowing with the public.

All that, and the LSE might be fielding an offer from NASDAQ, apparently.

Stay tuned...
Click to expand...

What do you think about the entire thing ? More specifically it's impact to Canada but more specifically Toronto ?
 
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