Britain’s post Brexit disaster continues as another Englishman wins another Tour de France stage. Er, clearly the whole fabric of society is collapsing as the “Remoaner” media claim. England’s major TV export remains at threat with Chris Evans resigning a Top Gear presenter. Unsurprising, let’s hope as Britain gets its mojo back too, so can Top Gear (then again ‘some say’ they went badly wrong when they didn’t choose me for the new line-up…). I see even William Hague (elsewhere in the parish, an ICE NED) is mending his ways with a “we are all leavers now” opinion piece as an olive branch towards making up for the dismal drivel he has been peddling in recent months. At least he is not trying to roll back like the denialists. Thus his more mature intervention is welcome.
Meanwhile, you can now access my Brexit files in Premium through this contents directory: Brexit – Main File. Once again I cannot caution enough the dangers of reading the mainstream media on the topic which broadly reflects its own biases and not the reality of the situation…let alone delivering coherent analysis. More to follow on Brexit…
Today in the parish, unsurprisingly LSE shareholders voted to accept a deal which gives them a huge gift from Frankfurt. Talk of going Dutch smacks of the desperation which has characterised this dismal deal from start to finish.
Public Markets
MondoVisione
LSE Shareholders Approve Merger With DB1 (subscription)
Ian Walker & Eyk Henning – Wall Street Journal
LSE Shareholders Vote To Approve DB1 Merger Deal
William Turvill – City A.M.
Some 99.89% of those who voted approved the deal, the company announced on Monday. Shareholders in DB1 have until 12 July to approve the deal.
PLY: The Dire deal understandably beloved of LSE shareholders post Brexit as it is so vastly to their advantage. Pity that it will end misthreaded in the valley of antitrust/regulatory needles.
LSE Defends DB1 Deal After Brexit
Huw Jones – Reuters
LSEG asked its shareholders to back a $27 billion merger with DB1 on Monday, dismissing concerns it was “shackling itself to a corpse” after Britain voted to leave the EU.
PLY: Pithy and apt line. The “corpse” here is, I believe, the EU, just to avoid confusion.
LSE / DB1: Exchange Of Views (subscription)
Financial Times
Politics should not intervene. They will.
PLY: Politics may intervene. Antitrust must.
LSE & DB1 May Go Dutch to Win Over Regulators
John Detrixhe & Aaron Kirchfeld – Bloomberg
QV Premium: DB1-LSE Merger Brief.
PLY: The Dutch option will not go down well anywhere I suspect and least of all with LSE shareholders who would clearly need another vote – even before we get to the regulators…Besides antitrust still has a stake for the heart of this daft beast anyway.
LSE Chairman Plays Down Hollande Clearing Comment (subscription)
Luke Jeffs – FOW
Donald Brydon: “people are already trying to pick over the bones of the UK”. The Chairman of LSEG sought to play down a comment from French President Hollande that Euro-denominated clearing must move into the EU after the Brexit vote.
Half-Year Statement of the Liquidity Contract Between Euronext & Exane BNP Paribas
BUSINESS WIRE
Private Markets
IFCI Sells 0.5% Stake In NSE For Rs 89 Cr (USD 13.2m)
NDTV
IFCI sold 0.5% stake in NSE for Rs 89 Cr (USD 13.2m) (approx valuation USD 2.64B). Buyers not disclosed. IFCI has however put on hold selling its remaining 3.05% stake in NSE
State Bank of India (SBI) also sold 5% stake in NSE to Mauritius-based Veracity Investments for Rs 911 Cr (USD 135.5m), valuing the exchange at over Rs 18,200 Cr (USD 2.71B).
QV Premium: India – NSE Sales Brief.
Bitcoin Transactions Values To Triple this Year – Reaching Over USD92Bn
MondoVisione
A new study from Juniper Research has found that the total value of Bitcoin transactions is expected to exceed $92 billion this year, up from less than $27 billion in 2015. The research found that transaction volumes continued to be concentrated overwhelmingly on the exchanges, with Bitcoin now trading at values almost 50% higher than at the beginning of the year.
Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads
PLY: Flat to small off for both MCX and FTIL this morning.
Technology
FXCH Clears First Blockchain-Settled Institutional Spot-FX Trades
Automated Trader
Newly established Clearing House FXCH (the FX Clearing House), a member-based financial utility for Spot-FX clearing, has accepted and novated its first trades from e-FX trading platforms using a distributed ledger for settlement. Members (or their clients) can now submit trades transacted on any institutional FX platform to be cleared and settled by FXCH. The use of a Blockchain aims to offer full transparency to the settlement process.
PLY: A logical and inevitable Blockchain application.
Products
CME To Count On French Grain Firms In EU Wheat Battle With Euronext
Gus Trompiz – Reuters
CME faces a tough task getting Europe’s grain trade to adopt U.S.-style wheat futures, but backing from big French grain handlers gives it a chance of challenging Euronext in a market some traders say has room for only one exchange. CME will launch trading in EU wheat futures and options on Sept. 12.
LME To Launch Iron Ore Futures To Meet Hedging Demand
Nikkei Asian Review
LME will launch futures for iron ore and other steel raw materials to cater to growing demand from steel plants and other customers for hedging price volatility resulting from gyrating steel prices in China.
Last year, LME launched two new ferrous contracts, LME Steel Scrap and LME Steel Rebar. To complement existing products, the exchange will also consider listing futures for iron ore, coking coal and hot-rolled coil, said CEO Garry Jones.
India Offers Rupee-Dollar Market On A Platter To Dubai, Singapore
Mobis Philipose – Livemint
In the exchange-traded space, there are obvious reasons why overseas traders and even some domestic traders prefer offshore markets.
NSE Launches Trade Repository For Corporate Debt
Abhijit Lele – Business Standard
National SE (NSE) has launched the NSE Trade Repository for Indian corporate debt. The trade repository provides consolidated information on OTC deals in corporate bonds across exchanges.
NCDEX Settles Claims Of Castor Seed Investors Hit By Trade Ban
Business Standard
After more than four months of ban on castor seed futures, NCDEX said it has completed the settlement of the castor claims admissible as per the close-out declared on May 9.
Career Paths
Crowdsurfer, the data intelligence service for crowd finance, appointed Richard Baker as its new Chairman, replacing retiring Chairman, Walter Herriot OBE. Crowdsurfer serves those organisations impacted by crowd finance (defined as web-based marketplaces for debt, equity and other funding), enabling them to monitor and react to the industry using data intelligence tools and empirical deep data.
PLY: Good to see former Cleartrade Exchange CEO Richard Baker back in the parish.
ESMA Is Seeking Secondary Market Experts To Join Consultative Industry Group
MondoVisione
ESMA has published a call for candidates to newly constitute a Consultative Working Group (CWG) for the ESMA Secondary Markets Standing Committee (SMSC) as the two-year-term of the existing CWG will expire shortly.
Financial Calendar
20.07 – ICDA Cyber Risk London Conference
20.07 – Record date WSE 2015 PLN 2.36 dividend
21.07 – Adjourned WSE Ordinary General Meeting to resume proceedings
All forthcoming exchange / investment related events are now listed in our Events page.
Analyst Notes
LSE “Outperform” Rating Restated By Credit Suisse – GBX 2,900 Target Price
A full table of current analysis can be found on our Analyst Ratings page which is updated daily.
Crowdfunding
Crowdcube Issues Prospectus For Latest Crowd Funding Round
Finextra
Crowdcube’s last crowdfunding round in 2014 saw the company raise £1.2 million from crowd investors, alongside £3.8 million from one of Europe’s leading venture capital firms Balderton Capital, in just 16 minutes. This time, in a first for Crowdcube, the company is raising funds with a prospectus, to allow the company to issue shares to the crowd above the limit set by EU rules.
Other stories
UK’s Serious Fraud Office: LIBOR Traders & Submitters Found Guilty
MondoVisione
Revised Irish SE Rulebooks Reflect Changes To EU Market Abuse Legislation
MondoVisione
Ontario Securities Commission Seeks Comment On Proposed Rule For Distributions Outside Canada
MondoVisione
MondoVisione
Life After Diamond: Barclays Closes Door on Years of Libor Pain
Liam Vaughan & Stephen Morris – Bloomberg
PLY: Finally the UK’s SFO has something to ‘celebrate’ with 3 convictions (out of 5 – the other 2 may yet be retried) after all the LIBOR expense… Elsewhere a Citibank “scapegoat” apparently won an unfair dismissal case.