EXCHANGE NEWSWIRE, 5 April 2011
NASDAQ OMX was placed on CreditWatch Negative by S&P. If the company is downgraded below investment grade as a result of acquiring NYX, NYSE bondholders can put the NYX bonds to NASDAQ OMX, which could lead to a potential credit cliff.
ASX-SGX merger: Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan voiced intentions to reject the proposed merger after being advised by the FIRB “that the takeover would not be in the national interest”, although a final decision has yet to be made. ASX shares closed 3.3% lower while SGX shares closed 4.5% higher on Tuesday.
SGX CEO Magnus Bocker has not given up hope on closing the ASX-SGX merger, and said that SGX does not plan to amend its proposal yet as “the notification that we have received contains no criticism of the proposed structure nor the governance for the proposed combined entity”.
LSE sold its non-core Italian unit Servicio Titoli, a company providing shareholder management services, to Computershare for approximately EUR30m in order to raise funds to buy TMX.
LSE-TMX merger: the Ontario legislative committee in charge of investigating the merger has postponed publication of the report of its findings which was originally due April 7. A Financial Times source said that the report is expected to appear in the next two weeks.
CME will invest $60m into its European clearinghouse before its launch in May. The total investment will be made up of $29m in equity from CME, and a $40m inter-company loan, and will be for the “guarantee fund used to establish CME Clearing Europe”.
CME and MexDer launched the first phase of their cross-exchange order-routing link, and Mexican investors now have access to CME’s benchmark derivatives contracts including interest rates, FX, equity indices, energy, metals and agricultural commodities.
NASDAQ OMX will launch “alpha index” options on April 18, which are meant to measure the outperformance or underperformance of individual stocks against the market by converting the difference into an index value. Susquehanna, International Group, Citadel and Wolverine have agreed to be market makers for the new type of options.
Bursa Malaysia and LSE are in early discussions to collaborate in creating products and a platform to trade each other’s shares. A Bursa spokesperson said that “we believe that alliances will work if the respective parties bring opportunities of strength and knowledge to the table”.
Istanbul Gold Exchange (IAB) launched trading in rough and polished diamonds to cater to changing tastes among younger consumers. IAB vice-president Oguzhan Aloglu warned that trading volumes will be low at first due to a 20% tax on diamond imports.
Equinix opened its fifth International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Dallas, representing represents an approximate $25m in investment for the first phase of the two-phase build out.
Eris Exchange will launch its new Currenex-powered interest rates trading platform on May 18, and the exchange is hosting a platform-naming contest in which the winner will be awarded a brand new Apple iPad 2. Contest details are available at www.erisfutures.com/contest.
ESMA will use feedback from a HFT survey to prepare its MiFID II “proposals for market microstructure”.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said at the 2011 Financial Markets Conference that clearinghouses could be given access to Fed loans in a possible crisis because they may be designated as systematically important. As such, clearinghouses which generally pose risks, should have strong credit and liquidity risk management practices, plenty of liquidity, high-quality collateral as well as effective member-default processes.
Provided By: Equity Research Desk, www.erdesk.com
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