Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan was in the South Korean coastal city of Gyeongju preparing for meetings with G20 finance ministers when he heard the news. An adviser had to pry the politician's attention from his mountain of summit paperwork to relay the story hitting the news wires that Friday afternoon in October: the Singaporean and Australian stock exchanges were in takeover talks. Swan was stunned. This was a large, politically-sensitive transaction involving the possible sale of Australia's stock exchange and no one had sounded out his office beforehand, a common practice given Australia's Treasurer has the power to block deals involving foreign owners.
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