Nasdaq listening to OMX owners, flexible on bid structure

Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld said on Wednesday he was listening to OMX owners and repeated the U.S. exchange group was flexible on the terms of its offer for the Nordic firm.

Nasdaq has bid $3.7 billion in cash and shares for OMX, which runs exchanges in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and the Baltic states.

Nasdaq is competing against a rival cash bid of $4 billion from Borse Dubai, although Greifeld told Reuters on Tuesday the planned sale of U.S. firm's stake in the London Stock Exchange should boost its share price and that would increase the value of its bid.

Greifeld, in Helsinki to meet investors and regulators, said on Wednesday the U.S. exchange group had already said it was flexible on the structure of the OMX deal, but would not give further details.

We are listening to the investors in OMX, he told a news conference. We will take that input ... and see how that relates to our bid.

Greifeld said a takeover by Nasdaq would substantially increase liquidity in the Nordic markets and enable the combined group to leverage opportunities created by regulatory changes taking place in the marketplace.

He said Borse Dubai's offer was about cash.

Our offer is about understanding what the combined organization can do in the future, he added. It is not a transaction of the moment.

He declined to say what Nasdaq would do if it failed in its bid for OMX.

We intend to make it work. Right now we are focused on communicating what the transaction is about, he said.