“Borse Dubai fulfills the requirements to become the owner” of OMX, the regulator, known as the Finansinspektionen, said in a statement.
Borse Dubai’s cash offer of 265 kronor per share, made jointly with the US high-tech exchange Nasdaq, values OMX at some 32 billion kronor ($4.9 billion).
OMX operates exchanges in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Reykjavik, Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius.
In late September Borse Dubai and Nasdaq, then rivals to take over OMX, said they had joined forces to acquire it together in a deal that would give Borse Dubai 19.99 percent of US-based Nasdaq and 28 percent of the London Stock Exchange.
In a complex takeover proposal that ended months of speculation over OMX’s fate, the groups said Borse Dubai of the United Arab Emirates would follow through on a previously announced 230-kronor-per-share offer for OMX, which was subsequently sweetened.
Nasdaq would then acquire all of Borse Dubai’s OMX shares.
The regulator on September 27th ruled that Nasdaq too was qualified to become an owner of OMX.
With Monday’s decision, Borse Dubai and Nasdaq can officially launch their friendly takeover move.