DUBAI: The state company that runs Dubai's stock exchanges cut its stake in exchange operator Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. Thursday as it races to cover a looming debt bill. Borse Dubai, the company's top investor and a major shareholder in the London Stock Exchange, sold down its stake in New York-based Nasdaq through two private sales worth $672 million. It said proceeds will be used to help repay a $2.45 billion loan due in February. Mohammed Al-Shaibani, a senior Dubai finance official and director of the Ruler's Court, the seat of executive power in the emirate, said Borse Dubai is still the single largest shareholder in Nasdaq. "Borse Dubai remains a committed, long-term shareholder of Nasdaq OMX," he said in a statement. "By entering into these transactions it has been able to achieve its financing objectives while retaining substantial economic interest in Nasdaq OMX." Under the terms of the deal, Nasdaq OMX will buy 22.78 million shares for $497 million, which it says represent about 11.5 percent of the total shares outstanding. Japanese investment bank Nomura is buying another 8 million for $175 million. It has agreed in turn to resell those to Swedish firm Investor AB, pending regulatory approval. Nasdaq OMX said the stake Borse Dubai is selling represents just over half of its total investment in the company. It plans to raise $370 million on the bond market to help pay for the share buyback. Borse Dubai still owns about 15 percent of the exchange operator, said Adena Friedman, chief financial officer of Nasdaq OMX. "They continue to be a strategic and important shareholder to us," Friedman said. In addition to the stake sale, Borse Dubai said it has secured a three-year, $428 million loan arranged by Nomura and local lender Emirates NBD. That deal will give it more time to pay back some of its debts. It says it reached an agreement with its lenders to refinance the rest of the money it owes before the February debt deadline comes due. Borse Dubai was set up in 2007 to accelerate the emirate's drive to become a leading financial center between Europe and the Far East. It operates the city-state's two exchanges: the dollar-denominated Nasdaq Dubai and the far more active Dubai Financial Market, where stocks are listed in UAE dirhams. It owns about 20 percent of the London Stock Exchange.
