Stock exchange merger: the Treasurer will surely say no

If further evidence was needed that public opinion would be against the takeover of the Australian Stock Exchange by the Singapore Stock Exchange it has come in the form of findings by UMR Research. The company’s managing director John Utting summarised findings from its December omnibus survey as being “surprising just how intense the opposition is to the proposed acquisition of the ASX by the Singapore Stock Exchange”.

“On this issue the shutters have definitely come down. Only a minuscule proportion of the population (6%) support the Singapore exchange acquiring the Australian Stock Exchange almost 10 times as many Australians are opposed to this happening (66%).“

“Australians have generally been welcoming to Singapore investment in our country”.

“However despite large-scale scale Singaporean investment in:

• communications (Optus) and Australia’s defence communications satellite system and

• extensive infrastructure projects as well as

• robust attempts by Singapore airlines to become perhaps the major player in the Australian international passenger market

the limits of acceptance may have finally been reached”.

“The proposal by SGX to acquire the ASX is quite well known amongst the Australian community with almost half of the sample having some degree of awareness of the proposal. There is across the board lack of support for the proposal with bipartisan political resistance and those generally more familiar with a proposal being more opposed to it”.

Mr Utting said “I think that for this proposal to get off across the line it will require a major structural re-engineering to make it more attractive and acceptable to Australians generally”.