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SINGAPORE (AFP) - Swedish Magnus Bocker is no stranger to mega deals but the Swedish marathon runner has entered the biggest race of his career with a controversial plan to merge the stock exchanges of Singapore and Australia.

Bocker, the chief executive of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), unveiled on Monday an offer to take over the the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) for 8.2 billion US dollars, triggering a backlash in Australia.

Independent MPs, who hold the balance of power in Canberra, have vowed to scuttle Bocker's proposal and have launched scathing attacks on Singapore, a tiny republic with big economic ambitions.

Bocker, who played a key role in the 3.7-billion-dollar sale of Nordic exchange OMX to the pioneering US electronic exchange Nasdaq in 2008, said merging the ASX and SGX would enable both to take advantage of opportunities in the region.

"In 2020, in less than 10 years from now, nearly half of the global GDP will be in Asia-Pacific," said the 49-year-old, who is set to become chief executive of the combined group if the deal overcomes regulatory and other hurdles.

"It's obvious for both of us, the importance not to sit still, not to do nothing but embrace the changes, embrace the opportunities that we see coming," he told reporters in Sydney on Monday.

Bocker, a fitness buff, has not been sitting still since joining SGX in December last year. He launched a 192 million-dollar programme to install a faster trading platform within months of taking over.

Bocker's dealings with ASX date back to 1995, when OMX provided technology for derivatives trading to the Sydney-based exchange.

"He will definitely have to call upon his previous experiences plus more to make this one work given the very strong opposition that has emerged from Australia," said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist with CIMB bank.

"I would think he has done his homework on the expected opposition and the delicate balance of power in Australia," he told AFP. "If he pulls it off, I suppose he can be called the merger exchange guru in both Europe and Asia."