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| On April 19, Singapore Exchange posted its lowest quarterly profit in two years, hurt by costs related to a failed takeover bid for Australian rival ASX (above) and putting the spotlight on Böcker’s growth strategy |
On April 8 the Australian Treasury did what most in the market had seen as inevitable for months: it blocked the Singapore Stock Exchange’s bid for its Australian counterpart, the ASX. In a forlorn statement, the SGX said: "The parties have agreed to mutually terminate the merger implementation agreement entered into on October 25 2010." There are no opportunities for a revision to the bid; the deal is over. If it had gone ahead, the $8.3 billion deal would have been the first substantial exchange merger in the Asia-Pacific region, and would have created the second-largest hub by number of companies listed and fourth largest by total market capitalization (behind Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai).
