NYSE’s tag team
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner yesterday added his voice to the chorus of supporters championing the idea that the New York Stock Exchange should fetch top billing in its planned merger with Germany’s Deutsche Boerse.
Geithner said he “very much” agrees with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has been trying to wield his political clout to ensure that “New York” comes first in the name of the new entity that emerges from the pending $10 billion tie-up.
“You agree with that. Yes you do. Come on,” Schumer pressed Geithner during a Senate hearing to discuss the 2012 budget.
“As I said, how can I say it more strongly,” Geithner said.
“I agree very much that this is in some ways the world’s iconic stock exchange. That happened in part because we have the best property rights, best disclosure, best investor protection regime in the world, been the envy of the world for a long period of time,” the Treasury secretary said.
The name of the new giant global exchange has become a major sticking point for Schumer, Wall Street veterans and NYSE members since talk of the pending merger emerged last week.
“I’ve talked to at least 10 experts and all of them say that the NYSE is a much stronger brand than Deutsche Boerse,” Schumer told The Post in a telephone interview.
“The NYSE name is good for business and it reaffirms that New York’s the financial center of the world.”
Earlier this week, the NYSE and Deutsche Boerse said they had inked a merger agreement, pending regulatory approval, that would have the German exchange owning 60 percent of the combined company — which would be the largest exchange in the world.
The two sides hope to close the deal by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, shareholders of NYSE Euronext yesterday sued the company in Delaware Chancery Court seeking to block the sale to Deutsche Boerse, saying the all-stock transaction is “grossly inadequate” and wasn’t the result of an auction.
