The public tender offer by Euronext for the Athens Stock Exchange has been completed with exceptionally high response rates, exceeding initial estimates and bringing satisfaction to both Euronext management and the Ministry of Finance. The acceptance rate reached 73%, significantly higher than the minimum success threshold (50% plus one share).
Official announcement of the results will be made on Wednesday, November 19, while on November 24 the new shares will be delivered and trading will begin simultaneously on the Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, and Paris stock exchanges. According to market sources, the high participation is largely due to the additional compensation given to brokerage firms as incentive to promote the share exchange to their clients — a common practice in similar transactions, as recently observed in the case of Mytilineos during its London Stock Exchange listing.
Shareholders who responded to the offer will receive Euronext shares at a ratio of 20 ATHEX shares for 1 Euronext share. Conversely, those who did not participate and if the minority squeeze-out procedure is activated, will receive compensation of €5.98 per share — a price lower than the current exchange value. Significant participation also came from institutional investors, both Greek and international, who benefited from the tax-neutral regime offered by the share exchange.
As reported by powergame.gr, with Athens’ official integration into the Euronext network, the Athens Stock Exchange will become the eighth member of Europe’s largest stock exchange platform and will be renamed Euronext Athens. The next critical step for Euronext is achieving 90% participation, which would allow it to proceed with a squeeze-out and subsequently the complete integration of ATHEX.
