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Euronext Weighs Higher Oslo Bors Offer to Top Nasdaq

Euronext Weighs Higher Oslo Bors Offer to Top Nasdaq

(Bloomberg) -- Euronext NV is weighing an increase to its offer for Norway’s main stock market operator, Oslo Bors VPS Holding ASA, to compete with a rival bid from Nasdaq Inc., people familiar with the matter said.

Euronext, which owns stock exchanges across Europe, may take its new offer to Oslo Bors shareholders as early as this week, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. No final decisions have been made and Euronext may still decide against raising its bid, they said. It’s unclear what Euronext will offer.

Representatives for Euronext and Oslo Bors declined to comment.

Nasdaq challenged Euronext’s 625 million euro ($713 million) bid, equivalent to 145 Norwegian kroner a share, by offering 152 kroner a share in January. The rival proposition won the backing of Oslo Bors’s board of directors and its two largest shareholders. Euronext has said it has the support of 50.5 percent of Oslo Bors’s shareholders.

A higher offer from Euronext would intensify the battle to acquire one of Europe’s last remaining independent stock exchanges. Euronext operates stock exchanges in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Dublin, while Nasdaq runs the local stock market in every Nordic country except Norway.

--With assistance from Viren Vaghela.

To contact the reporters on this story: Will Hadfield in London at whadfield@bloomberg.net;Ruth David in London at rdavid9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shelley Robinson at ssmith118@bloomberg.net, ;Daniel Hauck at dhauck1@bloomberg.net, Amy Thomson, Dinesh Nair

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