Another cornerstone was placed in the foundations of the Nordic Exchanges alliance Norex last month with the public offering of shares in the Oslo Stock Exchange.
The Swedish, Danish and Icelandic exchanges, which together with Oslo make up Norex, have already gone public. Although Oslo has no plans to seek a listing, it seems keen to consolidate the alliance through shareholding, publicly courting Stockholm.
Anna Eriksson, spokeswoman for OM (formerly OM Group) in Stockholm, said “We do hold shares in the Helsinki Exchange, but not so far in Oslo. We do feel, however, that this is a move in the right direction, because we are listed ourselves, and indeed were the first exchange in the world to be listed on a different exchange. Stock exchanges should be regarded as any other business, and Oslo are clearly adopting that strategy.”
The 5m shares on offer are to be sold in blocks of around 3,500 with an indicative price set at NKr75–95. This values the exchange at between $41m–52m (e47m–59m).
The exchange said that 70% of employees had confirmed that they would take up shares .