NEW YORK CITY-A partnership of Nasdaq OMX Group and IntercontinentalExchange has submitted a rival bid for NYSE Euronext, owner of the New York Stock Exchange. The unsolicited $11.3-billion offer, which would top Deutsche Boerse’s $9.5-billion bid by 19%, would create a New York City-based international exchange; it comes six weeks after NYSE Euronext and Frankfurt-based Deutsche Boerse announced plans for a merger.

In a letter Friday to the NYSE Euronext board, Nasdaq OMX and ICE say their proprosal “will strengthen both US and European market structures by consolidating a fragmented US equity market and creating a new pan-European equity market, for the benefit of investors and market participants and by promoting greater competition and innovation in European derivatives.” Additionally, the letter states, “we strongly believe that a Nasdaq OMX/NYSE Euronext/IntercontinentalExchange transaction would provide clearly superior benefits, in comparison to a Deutsche Boerse transaction, both for the US and European business community and their customers, and the US and European economies as a whole.”

NYSE Euronext says in a statement that its board will “carefully review” the Nasdaq OMX/ICE proposal; the company is urging shareholders not to take any action on the bid. Deutsche Boerse says in a statement of its own that its management “continues to strongly believe that the envisaged merger of Deutsche Boerse AG and NYSE Euronext is the best possible combination for both shareholder groups and the stakeholders of the companies.”

Although the combined Nasdaq/NYSE exchange would keep New York City as its sole global headquarters, rather than the dual offices in the NYSE/Deutsche Boerse proposal, there likely would be at least one domestic real estate vacancy as a result. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld told reporters at least one US data center would close to help lower costs, although he said it’s too soon to say which location would get the axe.