Europe awoke to An Historic Opportunity as I term it in Premium. The UK PM is now toothless, defenestrated and on his way out (“so what has changed?” cynics might ponder) while the lousy Finance Minister is doubtless toast too. The EU has a simple binary now, reform or die. “It’s the economy stupid” won the Presidency for Bill Clinton – Brussels must focus on little else if it is to survive at the heart of any form of EU.
I am fielding a lot of calls today and expect some media too – anybody needing an update on how I see the post Referendum framework will be accommodated under the usual terms. I may also post more later in Premium if developments are far outside previous predictions. For now, the Brexit Premium briefs are:
Part 1: Brexit – Introduction
Part 2: Brexit 2 EU Dysfunction
Part 3: Spousal Abuse
Part 4: The Vote
Part 5: Brexit 5: Too Close To Call
Part 6: A Vote For Europe’s Future
Part 7: Outcomes
Part 8: An Historic Opportunity
Public Markets
Joint Announcement From LSEG & DB1 – UK Referendum
MondoVisione
As stated in the shareholder documents published on 1 June 2016, the recommended all-share merger of LSEG and DB1 is not conditional on the outcome of the Referendum. The LSEG Board and the DB1 Management Board remain fully committed to the agreed and binding merger terms, and continue the process of obtaining the necessary approvals.
PLY: “The Boards believe that the outcome of the Referendum does not impact the compelling strategic rationale of the Merger. “ If only the EU wasn’t on the verge of reform or death, there could be openings for those who stick with their stubborn agitprop when the facts are that German politicians will be incandescent at what they see (rightly or wrongly) as a bad deal for their national interests. In a week where the message could not be clearer: that voters don’t believe big fat blobby slow moving multinationals, Db1 and LSE issue a business school case study in the art of stubborn, inflexibility. This deal is dead even before antitrust kills it. Every day of dallying is handing advantage to rival entities.
France Sticks Knife Into LSE-DB1 Merger
Michael Bow – Evening Standard
Pierre Pringuet, president of AFEP, France’s most powerful business lobby which speaks for more than 100 of France’s biggest companies, has called on EU competition authorities to block the LSE-DB1 merger over fears that it will trigger an exodus of French companies to London or Frankfurt.
QV Premium: DB1-LSE Merger Brief.
PLY: Mere “préliminaires” as the French would term it. Besides, how is that foresight of doing a deal ahead of a highly volatile Brexit referendum working out for CarCrash? At this rate Xavier might get relieved of tea trolley duties and have to take charge of delivering a strategy again… At least XavRol has Dave Cameron on his speed dial who is the most influential man in, oh hold on a moment. It’s at times like this, chaps, when it all becomes oh so clear who reads Exchange Invest Premium and who doesn’t…
ITG Agrees to Pay $5.25m to Ex-CEO Gasser in Settlement
Annie Massa – Bloomberg
The settlement, detailed in a filing Thursday, comes almost a year after Gasser was ousted amid a regulatory probe of ITG’s dark pool. Gasser sought $13 million from ITG (reported here), in a “demand for arbitration” claiming the company wrongfully ended his contract and damaged his reputation.
CISE Lists On Its Own Exchange
MondoVisione
The Channel Islands Securities Exchange (CISE) has not raised any additional capital but has been admitted by way of introduction of the existing 2,461,000 ordinary shares.
PLY: An interesting addition to the investment universe within the parish.
Potential Rival To LME Would Be Costly; Tie-Up An Option
Pratima Desai – Reuters
The idea of launching a platform to rival the LME, the world’s biggest market for industrial metals, is unlikely to become reality without large amounts of capital but a viable alternative could be a tie-up with another exchange. Former LME CEO Martin Abbott raised the concept after being approached by brokers, unhappy with a steep rise in fees and a move to boost volumes by trying to attract more speculators and funds.
PLY: A sort of classic sellers’ remorse? It sounds as if the brokers/dealers want more say in LME but don’t really fancy putting up their own cash for a competitor so hope to regain influence they were richly rewarded for by HKEx buying their shares…
SEC: Merrill Lynch To Pay $415m For Misusing Customer Cash & Putting Customer Securities At Risk
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SEC: Merrill Lynch Paying $10m Penalty For Misleading Investors In Structured Notes
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NZX Boss: Aussies Poaching Our Firms
Christopher Adams – NZ Herald
Tim Bennett called on Kiwis to be more nationalistic about this country’s sharemarket. The boss of NZX has compared local companies listing across the Tasman to “welcoming Australians into an All Blacks training camp and allowing them to take our best players”.
WFE Board Meeting Held At Shanghai SE
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CFTC Requests Public Comment On Swap Clearing Requirement Submissions
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Private Markets
Shree Renuka Sugars To Sell Its 5% Stake In NCDEX
Jayshree P. Upadhyay – Livemint
Shree Renuka Sugar Ltd (SRSL) is in advanced talks to sell its minority stake of 5% in NCDEX to a foreign fund. The deal size is estimated to be a little over Rs.50 crore (USD 7.35m) and will allow SRSL to exit NCDEX fully.(NCDEX’s valuation aprox USD 147m) NSE holds the largest stake in NCDEX at 15% while the Life Insurance Corporation has a 11.1% stake.
Wilmington SE Officials Target July Opening
Xerxes Wilson – Delaware Online
The group behind a startup stock exchange in Wilmington is courting companies to list on the trading system, now anticipated to launch late next month. The project, called the Delaware Board of Trade, was announced in July and had originally been scheduled to open last fall.
Nigerian SE AGM – Plans EGM On Demutualisation
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KRX To Reform Commission System
Korea Herald
KRX will hire an external agency to examine its current commission rate and standards on the imposition of fees and compare it with other major stock exchanges worldwide.
Circle Raises $60M, Making a Huge Move into China
BostInno
Circle announced that it has raised a new $60 million round of strategic financing led by Beijing venture capital giant and existing investor IDG Capital Partners. The other investors are Breyer Capital, former IBM CEO and Chairman Sam Palmisano, Silver Lake co-founder Glenn Hutchins. General Catalyst Partners and a number of strategic partners in China, including Baidu, CICC Alpha, EverBright Investments, WangXiang and CreditEase. This brings total funding to $136 million.
Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads
PLY: MCX off 3%, FTIL down 4%, I doubt it is down to the Brexit referendum but if anything else goes wrong with your day just blame the British vote…
FTIL-NSEL Merger: Govt Gets More Time To Respond To FTIL Plea
The Hindu Business Line
4 more weeks to respond to FTIL’s revised plea challenging the constitutional validity of Section 396 of Companies Act.
NSEL Scam: ED Director Meets Investors, Chalks Out Strategy Against Jignesh & Company
India Today
QV Premium: NSEL Scandal Brief – Part 16 & NSEL-FTIL Merger Brief.
Products
Presentation by HKEX’s Head of ETFs & SVP Brian Roberts – Launch Of Leveraged & Inverse Products
HKEX
London & Frankfurt Vie for RMB Business
Shanny Basar – Markets Media
ESMA Publishes The Responses To Its Discussion Paper On UCITS Share Classes
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Indexes
HKEX & Thomson Reuters Launch Co-Branded Renminbi Index Series
HKEX
HKEX and Thomson Reuters (TR) launched a series of Renminbi (RMB) indices which measure the intraday performance of the RMB against Mainland China’s most important and relevant trading partners’ currencies. The indices measure the performance of RMB against a basket of key currencies.
Career Paths
Nasdaq announced the appointment of nine directors to The NASDAQ Stock Market, NASDAQ PHLX, and NASDAQ BX Boards; the election of Thomas A. Kloet as Chairman of the Boards and the retirement of three directors. Directors serve a one-year term.
The name and title of directors appointed to the Boards of The NASDAQ Stock Market, NASDAQ PHLX and NASDAQ BX are highlighted below:
Daniel C. Bigelow, President & Managing Partner of Monadnock Capital Management L.P.
Virgis W. Colbert, Senior Advisor, MillerCoors
Michael J. Curran, retired Chairman & CEO of the Boston SE
David J. Frear, EVP & CFO, Sirius XM Holdings
Hans-Ole Jochumsen, President, Nasdaq
Thomas A. Kloet, retired CEO & Executive Director, TMX. Chairman Kloet also serves on the Nasdaq Board.
William M. Lyons, retired President & CEO of American Century Companies
Douglas Melamed, Professor in the Practice of Law, Stanford Law School
Wendy S. White, SVP & General Counsel, University of Pennsylvania
Additionally, the Nasdaq leadership team extends its sincere gratitude to three directors retiring from our subsidiary boards
Merit E. Janow, Dean, Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs, and well known for her deep knowledge of international markets, antitrust law, mergers and trade, chaired The NASDAQ Stock Market Board for eight years, and served three years on the board of Nasdaq
John D. Markese, Vice Chairman, American Association of Individual Investors, served for 20 years on the board of Nasdaq. Additionally, he Chaired the Audit committee for 15 years and served 11 years as a director of The NASDAQ Stock Market.
Leonard J. Amoruso, Partner/Shareholder, Murphy & McGonigle, served three years as a director of The NASDAQ Stock Market, NASDAQ PHLX and NASDAQ BX Subsidiary Boards
Warsaw SE’s OGM, on 22 June 2016, elected (effective 1 July 2016):
Judges of the Exchange Court: Mr Aleksander Chłopecki, Mr Jan Izdebski, Mr Maciej Mataczyński, Mr Marek Michalski, Mr Mateusz Rodzynkiewicz, Mr Tomasz Siemiątkowsk, Mr Andrzej Szumański, Mr Paweł Wajda, Ms Anna Walaszek-Pyzioł, Mr Aleksander Werner.
President of the Exchange Court: Mr Andrzej Szumański.
VP of the Exchange Court: Mr Aleksander Chłopecki.
At the Nigerian SE AGM, Members of the Exchange re-elected to the National Council Mr. Aigboje Aig- Imoukhuede, CON, as the President; Engr. Muhammad Daggash; Mr. Oluwole Abegunde (Meristem Securities); Mr. Oladipo Aina (Signet Investment & Securities) as members of the National Council.
InvestCloud, a global cloud-based digital applet platform for financial services, appointed Graham Collier as the new Head of Technical Operations for Europe and Harriet Downing to a Senior Business Sales role.
FM reports that AlphaDesk, a cloud-based software solutions provider to hedge funds and asset managers, hired Kevin Galliers as its newest COO. Galliers joins from SunGard.
Financial Calendar
24.06 – Nasdaq $0.32 quarterly dividend payment
All forthcoming exchange / investment related events are now listed in our Events page.
Other stories
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FIA Releases SEF Tracker For May 2016
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