Baltic Exchange shareholders vote in favour of Singapore Exchange acquisition and announce appointment of new chief executive
Shareholders in the Baltic Exchange have voted to approved the proposed acquisition of the company by Singapore Exchange (SGX).
SGX said today that Baltic Exchange investors had approved all the resolutions required in connection with the proposed scheme of arrangement for the acquisition.
“We are very pleased at the outcome of the vote and thank Baltic’s shareholders for their strong support," said SGX chief exec Loh Boon Chye.
"We now look forward to completing the transaction and realising the growth opportunities as we bring together two important maritime centres.”
SGX and London-based Baltic Exchange have been in talks since May this year, after the Singapore bourse came out on top of a string of interested parties which included CME Group, Interncontinental Exchange and Platts.
The terms of the deal were revealed last month – SGX valued Baltic Exchange at around £87m with its offer of £160.41 per share in cash and £19.30 per share as a special dividend, and the groups agreed that the UK firm would remain headquartered in London.
The London exchange is home to the Baltic Dry Index, which measures the cost of shipping huge quantities of coal, ore, grain and other dry commodities across the world.
The Baltic Exchange also announced today that Mark Jackson, a former chairman and director of the group, will replace Jeremy Penn as chief executive in early 2017. Jackson was elected vice chairman of the exchange in 2007 and served as its chairman from 2009 until 2012. Penn announced that he would be stepping down as from the top spot last year.