Business

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Tom Kloet, CEO of the TMX Group, poses for a photo in Toronto on April 21, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TMX Group chief executive Tom Kloet will remain in charge of the company that runs the Toronto Stock Exchange, Maple Group Acquisition Corp. said Thursday as it appeared set to complete its takeover.

The consortium of a dozen Canadian banks, pension funds and investment firms said Kloet will be named CEO of Maple if enough shareholders tender their shares to its takeover offer by a deadline at the end of the month.

Tom Caldwell, chairman of Caldwell Securities, said keeping Kloet in charge was a "smart move."

"He's one of the brightest guys in the exchange space in the world," he said. "I would have been very surprised if they did not keep him."

Kloet will be joined by his executive team at TMX (TSX:X) who will also be named executives at Maple, which expects to change its name to TMX Group Ltd. in August.

Maple cleared its last major regulatory hurdles Wednesday when securities regulators in B.C. and Alberta signed off on its takeover of the TMX Group.

Analysts said with the regulatory approvals out of the way, they are confident that shareholders will allow the deal to move forward.

"Considering that the regulatory bodies are now on board, the chances of this being accepted by shareholders by the end of the month have increased," said Gareth Watson, vice-president of investment management at Richardson GMP.

Caldwell echoed the sentiment.

"Shareholders are all in favour of it. The irritant has been that it's taken so long for the regulators to work their magic through this process," he said.

TMX Group shareholders have until July 31 to tender their shares to the Maple offer.