NYSE shareholders embrace Deutsche Boerse merger

 * $9.4 bln takeover faces antitrust review in Europe*
The New York Stock Exchange, an icon of American capitalism, moved closer to ceding control to a German company on Thursday, with few investors lodging any protest.
Some 65.6% of NYSE Euronext shareholders backed the $9.4 bln takeover of the company that owns the NYSE by Deutsche Boerse AG, preliminary vote results from the NYSE showed. About 96% of votes cast were in favor, the company said. The final vote results are expected on Friday.
The exchanges have promoted the deal as a merger of equals — in part because it allows Big Board Chief Executive Duncan Niederauer to run the combined entity. The larger Frankfurt-based bourse, however, would control 10 of 17 board positions, while its shareholders will own roughly 60% of a yet-to-be-named Netherlands-based holding company.
If roadblocks to the blockbuster deal emerge, they are likely to come from Europe. The deal requires approval from 75% of Deutsche Boerse shareholders by Wednesday of next week and then would have to survive a thorny European Commission antitrust review that could run through the rest of the year.
Niederauer said shareholders in the German company also back the deal, noting that the challenge there will be in making sure enough investors file the paperwork properly and in time.
"I have not met a single Deutsche Boerse shareholder who is not supportive of the transaction," Niederauer said at the shareholder meeting in New York.
The tie-up between NYSE and the German exchange was announced in February amid a flurry of cross-border deal attempts by exchanges eager to cut costs and diversify in the face of fast-eroding market shares in their traditional stock-trading businesses.
The London Stock Exchange and Canada's TMX headed into negotiations, as did the Singapore Exchange and Australia's ASX. One by one, however, those and other deals collapsed, shattered by political and nationalistic resistance.
NYSE Euronext itself was the target of an unsolicited counter-bid in April from archrival Nasdaq OMX and its commodities partner, the IntercontinentalExchange in April. The pursuers retreated in May after being rejected by the U.S. Department of Justice over antitrust concerns. 
A NYSE-Deutsche Boerse combination would produce a behemoth that offers trades in virtually every U.S. and European asset class, with annual trading volume exceeding $20 trln. It also explains why European antitrust regulators are expected to take a close look at the near lock the company would have on exchange-traded derivatives — and possibly demand some divestitures or other concessions.
There have been few public critics of the deal in the United States, despite the NYSE's symbolism as a bastion of American capitalism. The exchange was founded in 1792 when share trading began under a buttonwood tree on a block now designated as Wall Street.
To woo votes, Niederauer and his Deutsche Boerse counterpart, Reto Francioni, have been telling shareholders they expect to achieve cost savings from the combination of at least 500 mln euros ($715 mln), ramped up from an initial projection of 300 mln euros ($429 mln). They also have promised a special dividend of 2 euros per share ($2.86 per share) after the deal closes.
Under the terms of the deal, Francioni would be chairman of the combined entity.