London Stock Exchange Controlled by Arab States

• Views: 2,224

The terror-sponsoring Arab states of Qatar and Dubai have now gained control of the London Stock Exchange.

QATAR has upped its share in London’s Stock Exchange to nearly 24 per cent, giving the gulf state and neighbour Dubai a controlling stake of nearly 52 per cent.

Quoting LSE sources, a Qatari newspaper reported the gas-rich Gulf state bought an additional 3 per cent of shares on Friday, a day after it bought a 20 per cent slice of Europe’s oldest stock exchange.

The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the investment unit of the Qatar government, initially bought a 20.8 per cent stake off two hedge funds.

This would put the QIA’s overall share in the LSE at nearly 24 per cent.

The United Arab Emirates’ group Borse Dubai meanwhile agreed to buy a 28 per cent LSE holding from Nasdaq, meaning the two now hold nearly 52 per cent of the stock exchange.

UPDATE at 9/23/07 10:12:42 pm:

As if this weren’t troubling enough, Persian Gulf states are also staging a takeover of the Nordic Exchange: Bidding war expected as Qatar buys into OMX.

Nordic market operator OMX looked set Thursday to become the centre of takeover bidding battle between Gulf rivals Dubai and Qatar.

In a deal announced early Thursday, Dubai market operator Borse Dubai and US group Nasdaq said they had joined forces to acquire OMX together in a deal that would give Borse Dubai 19.99 percent of US-based Nasdaq and 28 percent of the London Stock Exchange.

The companies had previously been competing to buy OMX.

But just when OMX’s fate appeared to be sealed, a state-owned Qatari investment fund jumped into the fray and bought 9.98 percent of OMX shares and urged OMX shareholders “to take no action with respect to the revised conditional offer by Nasdaq/Borse Dubai.”

Dubai and its neighbour Qatar are both seeking to become the Middle East’s centre of global trading. Both emirates have an independent market regulator.

Shares in OMX closed up by almost 7.69 percent at 269 kronor following speculation that Qatar’s interest in OMX could lead to a bidding war.

“Who knows how far the bidding could go, just like Dubai, they’ve (Qatar) got more money than God,” Thomas Johansson, an analyst at Kaupthing Bank, told financial newswire Thomson Financial News.

(Hat tip: Against Socialism.)

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal
Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh
Why Did More Than 1,000 People Die After Police Subdued Them With Force That Isn’t Meant to Kill? An investigation led by The Associated Press has found that, over a decade, more than 1,000 people died after police subdued them through physical holds, stun guns, body blows and other force not intended to be lethal. More: Why ...
Cheechako
42 minutes ago
Views: 26 • Comments: 0 • Rating: 0
A Closer Look at the Eastman State Bar DecisionTaking a few minutes away from work things to read through the Eastman decision. As I'm sure many of you know, Eastman was my law school con law professor. I knew him pretty well because I was also running in ...
KGxvi
4 hours ago
Views: 77 • Comments: 1 • Rating: 1