NYSE Group sets date for vote on Euronext deal

NYSE Group Inc. set Dec. 20 as the date for shareholders to vote on its proposed purchase of Paris-based Euronext, a deal now valued at $15 billion that would create the first transatlantic stock exchange.

NYSE Group investors will meet at the New York Stock Exchange to vote on the transaction, according to a regulatory filing posted on the company’s website. Euronext shareholders will gather in Amsterdam to consider the deal Dec. 19. European and U.S. regulators must approve the combination.

The shareholders’ vote would cap a six-month effort by NYSE Group to address concern among some policymakers that the purchase would change the regulations that Europeans are subject to. The New York-based exchange also fended off a rival bid for Euronext by Deutsche Boerse.

A 37% rally in NYSE Group shares this month helped boost the value of the company’s cash-and-stock offer by about $3 billion. On Monday, NYSE shares fell $7.15, or 6.6%, to $101.11.

NYSE Group in June agreed to pay 0.98 of a share of its stock plus 21.32 euros in cash for each share of Euronext. The New York company, which has no debt, plans to borrow about $2.8 billion to finance the cash part of its offer, according to Monday’s filing.

The deal, which NYSE Group said would be completed by the first quarter, would link the NYSE with bourses in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon, listing companies with a market value of $26 trillion.