March 08 2016

elb2 Building on yesterday’s Merger Mania 2016 The Story So Far, I have discussed CCP is Not Syllogistic in a new Premium post today.

Today in Exchange Invest daily, ICE files another humdrum form, world swoons. Scotsman discusses what EI Premium told you last week, world catches its breath…I recommend you catch up in Premium and stay ahead of the average insights (which are very average indeed) pertaining to merger mania!

Meanwhile in Bigworld, only 10 days until one backmarker candidate moves to a St Me’s day turnaround gamble by branding himself Marc O’Rubio to try his luck at getting the Irish vote to support his flagging nomination bid.

Public Markets

ICE Rule 2.10 Announcement

ICE

ICE confirms, in accordance with Rule 2.10 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers…

PLY: Magnificent stuff. The brooding implicit threat of deftly deployed 2.10 notices, is exposing the sheer mental incapacity of once vaunted CEOs who have now been downgraded to appearing like B-grade micromanagers in amateur pantomime.

LSE-DB1 Merger Would Signal End To Exchange Mega-Deals

Huw Jones – Reuters

If the LSE – DB1 merger goes ahead, it could be the final mega-deal in the industry as further combinations of such scale are likely to hit antitrust buffers.

QV Premium: DB1-LSE Merger Brief.

PLY: Huw Jones returns to the exchange parish to demonstrate his mastery of the topic. Interesting conversations with fine folks in the field such as Brian Taylor. Mentions me too…

CME Weighs Potential Bid For DB1

Scotsman

CME is understood to have scrutinised both LSE and DB1 as possible takeover targets before the proposed cross-Channel “merger of equals”.

PLY: QV Last week’s Premium CME: Turning the Other Cheek.

SGX To Boost Freight Derivatives With Pursuit Of Baltic Exchange

Anshuman Daga – Reuters

SGX’s bid to buy Baltic Exchange is aimed at burnishing its derivatives credentials among ship brokers and commodity merchants, fitting hand in glove with its efforts to develop Asian pricing benchmarks for bulk commodities.

PLY: It’s a fascinating niche with SGX pushing more head to head with Cleartrade as it pursues the Baltic.

US Exchanges: The ‘Speed Bump’ Battle (subscription)

Nicole Bullock & Philip Stafford – Financial Times

PLY: SEC faces ultimate bureaucrats nightmare, having to make a decision.

US T+2 ISC Recommends Move To Shorter Settlement Cycle On September 5, 2017

MondoVisione

Private Markets

Bats 2015 Profit Surges 67% Ahead of IPO (subscription)

Maria Armental – Wall Street Journal

vs 2014: profit $82.2m, up 67%, revenue $1.78 bln, up 22%.

PLY: Just the sort of thing you want to show ahead of an IPO…

NSE Mulls Foreign Listing Along With Self-Listing

Ashley Coutinho – Business Standard

NSE is mulling foreign listing in addition to self-listing in India after the issue was discussed during a call with the shareholders on February 12. This was further to the exchange’s board meeting held on February 8.

PLY: Interesting angle…

Some Wall Street Vets Are Betting On a Weed Exchange

Brian Louis – Bloomberg

Not to worry. “It’s never easy to pioneer an industry,” says Janjic, a former foreign-exchange executive at Tullett Prebon who has put $1 million into Amercanex, an electronic cannabis-trading platform that handles sales of about 100 to 150 pounds of weed a week.

PLY: Fascinating (and not unreasonable!) number: entity capitalised through seats at $80,000,000.

Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads

PLY: MCX up 1%, FTIL flat on a quiet day post publish holiday.

Technology

ASX, ASIC Halt Bitcoin Group Listing Plans

Maria Nikolova – LeapRate

ASX sent Bitcoin Group a letter, informing the company that it does not meet the requirements for admission to the official list.

ASX made its decision after Grant Thornton Australia produced an independent report stating that Bitcoin Group has sufficient working capital to carry out its stated objectives. However, in its letter, ASX rejected the report’s conclusions.

Regulators Play Waiting Game As Financial Technology Evolves

Huw Jones – Reuters

Regulators trying to police innovations in financial technology are waiting to see whether start-ups develop open systems or ones that allow only limited access for users.

PLY: Good to see pragmatism in some regulatory circles.

CBOE & Bloomberg Expand Connectivity to CBOE’s PULSe Trader Workstation

CBOE

Products

CME Set To Launch Swaptions Clearing In Q2 (subscription)

Robert Mackenzie Smith – Risk

Dealers say it could also help the CCP fight the unfavourable basis that has opened up against LCH.Clearnet for certain cleared US dollar IRS.

Career Paths

Hartmut Graf is going to concentrate on DB1’s data business. The new CEO of STOXX is Matteo Andreetto, until now STOXX Global Head of Sales.

CME announced the following MD promotions: Peter Keavey, MD & Global Head, Crude & Refined Energy Products, Tim McCourt, MD & Global Head, Equity Products, Agha Mirza, MD & Global Head, Interest Rate Products, Adrienne Seaman, MD & Associate General Counsel, International.

TMX named Tom Wadden as Head of Data Science and Analytics for TMX Insights.

TradeStation Group announced that Salomon Sredni will retire as President & CEO and from the BoD effective March 31, 2016. John Bartleman, President of TradeStation Securities, will succeed Mr. Sredni as President of TradeStation Group, and join its BoD, effective April 1, 2016. TradeStation Group, is a Monex Group company. Mr. Sredni is also retiring as COO of Monex Group.

Nigerian SE approved the contract renewal of Mr. Ade Bajomo, for another term of five years as Executive Director, Market Operations & Technology.

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) is seeking a Head of Financial Planning. The new post holder will be reporting to the CISI Director of Global Business Development, Kevin Moore, and their main objective will be to help develop and implement the CISI’s strategy to promote and increase the number of CFP professionals in the UK.

Financial Calendar

10.03 – Record date CME $0.60 Q1 2015 dividend

11.03 – TMX $0.40 dividend payment

All forthcoming exchange / investment related events are now listed in our Events page.

Analyst Notes

Credit Suisse Raised Target Price For LSE To GBX 3,350 From GBX 2,900 – “Outperform” Rating

A full table of current analysis can be found on our Analyst Ratings page which is updated daily.