DFM owner Borse Dubai slashes stake in Nasdaq

Shares of Nasdaq fell more than 2 per cent in extended trading on Tuesday following the announcement of a secondary share offering that will allow Borse Dubai to slash its minority stake in the US stock exchange.

Borse Dubai, which is the holding company of Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and Nasdaq Dubai, had been the largest single shareholder in Nasdaq. It said it will reduce its ownership stake to 10.8 per cent from 15.5 per cent.

Borse Dubai will offload about 26.96 million shares of the exchange operator as part of a secondary offering, according to a statement released after the closing bell on Tuesday.

Nasdaq shares closed the regular session up 3.6 per cent at $62.46.

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Borse Dubai could net $1.6bn from share sale

In a separate statement, Nasdaq priced the offering by Borse Dubai at $59 per share.

Borse Dubai would receive about $1.6 billion from the share sale.

“Subject to completion of the offering, Borse Dubai intends to agree to an 18-month lock-up of its remaining shares controlled by Nasdaq, with a right to designate a nominee to the Nasdaq board of directors so long as it continues to own at least 10 per cent of Nasdaq‘s outstanding shares as of the date hereof,” the statement said.

Following the offering, Borse Dubai will become the second-largest shareholder in Nasdaq.

US private equity firm Thoma Bravo will become Nasdaq‘s largest shareholder, holding a 12.5 per cent stake in the US exchange with about 71.6 million shares.