SIX Group, a Swiss financial markets infrastructure operator, announced today it has successfully completed its all-cash voluntary tender offer for Bolsas y Mercados (BME), operator of the Spanish stock exchanges and cornerstone of the Spanish capital markets, securing an acceptance level of 93.16% of BME’s share capital.
According to SIX, a total of 77,899,990 shares have been tendered at a price of 32.98 euros, representing a total of EUR 2,569,141,670 million or CHF 2,748,981,587 million. Following the Settlement , SIX will acquire control of BME, which will become part of SIX.
The combination of BME and SIX aims to create a more diversified group with a strong presence across Europe, becoming the 3rd largest European financial market infrastructure group and the 10th largest globally by revenue, SIX said in its statement.
SIX believes that this transaction will strengthen both the Spanish and Swiss ecosystems bringing new capabilities to BME and SIX participants and attracting new global capital pools to Spain.
Strategic use of financial information and data is increasingly important in market infrastructure, and this combination will produce an entity with the scale and flexibility to further invest in innovative solutions for its clients and partners.
Strenghtening BME's position in Spain
Thomas Wellauer, chairman of SIX, said that over the last three months, as the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted everyday life and economies around the world, the firm has seen how important a resilient market infrastructure is to the proper functioning of capital markets. He added that the role of Exchanges in supporting the economy and in ensuring fair, orderly and transparent markets has never been more apparent.
“The combination of BME and SIX will create a stronger, more diversified group with an enlarged global footprint and a unique capacity to respond to the increasingly sophisticated demands of clients. Today, SIX and BME embark on a new phase of growth that will deliver new opportunities with immediate benefits to the stakeholders of both companies and the wider economies in which they operate,” Wellauer noted.
“SIX is committed to preserving and strengthening BME’s position in Spain. The combined group will create innovation hubs in Spain and attract new pools of capital to the Spanish market. We look forward to fulfilling the various commitments we have made to the Spanish authorities ahead of the integration process, which we aim to begin as soon as possible,” Jos Dijsselhof, CEO at SIX, added.
SIX and BME: strong partnership
SIX announced that it will continue to fully deliver its core Swiss financial markets infrastructure services, now enhanced by BME's expertise in areas such as fixed income, derivatives and indices. BME will continue to fully deliver its core services to their customers in Spain and will benefit from new financial information solutions, as well as Blockchain and distributed ledger technology solutions.
SIX stated that the board of directors of BME will comprise a significant percentage of Spanish representatives and will reflect the new ownership structure, while SIX will propose to give entry to two independent Spanish directors of BME to its own board while Javier Hernani Burzako, CEO of BME, will become a member and join the SIX Executive Board, effective immediately.
