Deutsche Boerse makes headway in NYSE Euronext deal

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE) shareholders representing about 60 percent of voting shares have backed a deal with NYSE Euronext (NYX.N), the German exchange operator said a few hours before the offer expires on Wednesday.

That was up from about 34.5 percent on Tuesday.

The deal needs approval from 75 percent of Deutsche Boerse shareholders by 2200 GMT, and then must survive a thorny European Commission antitrust review that is likely to run through the rest of the year.

It is common for institutional investors to tender their shares within the last few hours before an offer ends, so analysts do not expect Deutsche Boerse to fall short of the 75 percent threshold.

Analysts at Silvia Quandt Research said the number of shares tendered by Tuesday was already high enough to assume a high level of acceptance.

Analysts at LBBW said there were several factors that should sway investors to tender their shares: The new stock will be more freely traded, and acceptance of the offer will be rewarded with a special dividend of 2 euros ($2.86) per share.

The tie-up between NYSE and the German exchange is the last mega-deal among exchange operators not to collapse, but faces formidable anti-trust hurdles on both sides of the Atlantic.

The deal 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 Group Plc (LSE.L) and Canada's TMX Group Inc (X.TO) headed into negotiations, as did the Singapore Exchange Ltd (SGXL.SI) and Australia's ASX Ltd (ASX.AX). One by one, however, those and other deals collapsed under pressure from political and nationalistic resistance.

NYSE Euronext itself was the target of an unsolicited counter-bid in April from archrival Nasdaq OMX Group Inc (NDAQ.O) and its commodities partner, IntercontinentalExchange Inc (ICE.N), in April.

The pursuers retreated in May after being rejected by the U.S. Department of Justice over antitrust concerns.

(Reporting by Kerstin Leitel; Writing by Maria Sheahan and Edward Taylor; Editing by David Cowell)