The London Stock Exchange has agreed to sell Borsa Italiana to Euronext for €4.3 billion, paving the way for its takeover of financial data provider Refinitiv.
The LSE bought Borsa Italiana for €1.6 billion in 2007 but has been trying to offload the Milan-based exchange in order to appease EU regulators and help ease a proposed $27 billion takeover of data provider Refinitiv.
The agreement with Euronext is dependent on the LSE receiving EU approval for the Refinitiv deal.
David Schwimmer, CEO, LSE, comments: “ We believe the sale of the Borsa Italiana group will contribute significantly to addressing the EU’s competition concerns. The Borsa Italiana group has played an important part in LSE’s history. We are confident that it will continue to develop successfully and contribute to the Italian economy and to European capital markets under Euronext’s ownership.”
He says LSE expects to complete the Refinitiv deal by the end of 2020, or early 2021, with the Borsa Italiana transaction set to go through in the first six months of next year.
Euronext has partnered with Italy’s biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo and state agency CDP to push through a deal which is viewed as politically sensitive by Italian authorities.