LONDON – The London Stock Exchange said on Wednesday that its shareholders had voted overwhelmingly in favor of its acquisition of Russell Investments, the owner of the Russell 2000 stock market index.
In June, the exchange agreed to acquire Russell for $2.7 billion in cash after confirming a month earlier that it was in discussions with Northwestern Mutual, Russell’s majority owner, about a possible sale.
On Wednesday, the London exchange said in a news release that 99.96 percent of the votes cast by its shareholders were in favor of the deal.
The transaction is expected to expand the exchange’s intellectual property platform and provide its first foothold in the United States, the world’s largest financial services market.
The exchange already owns the FTSE Group, the operator of indexes including the FTSE 100, which tracks the top 100 stocks traded in London.
Russell Investments, based in Seattle, operates an asset-management business and a stock market indexing business. The company has about $256 billion in assets under management. It says that about $5.2 trillion in assets are referenced against its United States indexes, the best known of which is the Russell 2000 for small-cap stocks.
The London exchange said it would undertake a “comprehensive review” of Russell’s investment management business to see how it would fit in the group.
The sale came after Northwestern Mutual’s announcement in January that it was exploring options for its stake in Russell Investments. The exchange would acquire all of Russell’s share capital from Northwestern Mutual and minority shareholders in the deal.
The London exchange expects to issue additional shares to raise about $1.6 billion to help finance the transaction