In May, the owner of the Swedish Stock Exchange, OM, announced that it was to merge with the proprietors of the Helsinki Stock Exchange, HEX. The deal, effectively a takeover as OM’s shareholders will hold 71% of the stock in the new company, is the first step in the exchange’s ambitious plans to create a single, pan-Nordic – and ultimately, pan-Baltic – stock exchange.
While in the short run the two exchanges will continue to operate separately, the new company has ambitious plans. It has already held talks with the owners of the Norwegian and Danish stock exchanges about combining operations and, through HEX, will own the Latvian and Estonian exchanges on completion of the friendly merger.
