Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- NZX Ltd., manager of the New Zealand Stock Exchange, has rejected as ``extremely low'' an offer from JSE Ltd. to buy its stake in Bond Exchange of South Africa Ltd., Africa's largest debt market.

On Oct. 27, the JSE, which runs the continent's biggest stock exchange, offered 90 rand ($9.26) a share, double the Bond Exchange's net asset value and said it plans to combine the companies' operations in a deal worth 173.2 million rand. Besa, as the bond exchange is known, will consider the offer this week, Chief Executive Officer Garth Greubel said today.

``NZX would not support a takeover at this offer price,'' the Wellington-based company said in a statement today. ``The JSE offer price is extremely low.''

The JSE offer doesn't take account of the exchange's growth potential, said NZX, which became Besa's biggest shareholder on Oct. 3 when it bought 22 percent of the company.

A combination would boost trading in interest-rate products and derivatives, lower trading and listing fees for companies and investors, improve risk controls and help cut computer- system costs, the JSE has said.

A takeover of Besa may give the JSE ``huge monopoly pricing power,'' Greubel said, which will be among the issues the exchange's board will consider.

Until December last year, Besa operated as a member-owned mutual company. The company last month raised 81 million rand selling stock to new and existing investors at 73.17 rand a share to help fund an expansion of its products, services, computer systems and staff.

``I don't think it will be necessary'' to raise the bid as the JSE ``expects the present offer to be well supported'' by other investors, JSE Deputy CEO Nicky Newton-King said in a telephone interview. ``The pricing of our bid was carefully thought out. You would expect something like this to happen during the bid process.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Garth Theunissen in Johannesburg gtheunissen@bloomberg.netVernon Wessels in Johannesburg at vwessels@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 3, 2008 10:01 EST