Bob GreifeldNEW YORK (Reuters):
NASDAQ STOCK Market Chief Executive Robert Greifeld on Friday said he was not contemplating selling the exchange's 25.1 per cent stake in the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
"We are incredibly happy with the investment," Greifeld told reporters and investors on the sidelines of a securities conference. "We are not contemplating being a seller. It is a reasonable expectation that come October we will own 25.1 per cent of the LSE."
The LSE rebuffed a buyout bid from Nasdaq in late March. Under British takeover rules, Nasdaq must wait six months before making a new bid.
Greifeld said he could not contemplate making a bid until October. "We can't bid for the whole enterprise until October we can't contemplate a bid until October," he said.
Greifeld also said that in the long term he expects Nasdaq's debt rating to return to investment grade.
He said he expects Nasdaq to win exchange status by August 1. Nasdaq's long-delayed application to become a registered securities exchange was approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January.
Greifeld originally expected Nasdaq to begin operating as an exchange in the 2006 second quarter. The change, under consideration since 2001, is key to Nasdaq's gaining full independence from regulatory Organisation NASD.
The exchange sector has been swept by a wave of consolidation recently as marts look to cut costs in an increasingly competitive and commoditised market. The race is currently on to create the first transatlantic stock exchange.
Last week, NYSE Group Inc., operator of the New York Stock Exchange, sealed an agreement to buy the pan-European exchange Euronext for 7.9 billion euros ($10.20 billion). The deal is expected to close in six months, but rival suitor Deutsche Boerse AG has vowed not to give up trying to secure its own tie-up with Euronext.
REUTERS
