Welcome to Exchnage Invest issue 962. In Porsche terms, next to the 956, the 962 would rank as my favourite vehicle to own. In an effort to merge the different codes of sports prototype racing, the FIA adopted various IMSA regulations which included moving the driver’s feet back in the chassis behind the front axle line. 91 factory cars alone were built while all manner of exciting variants included later carbon fibre monocoques and the scintillating Dauer 962, one of which memorably passed me on the Bas Corniche in the mid 1990’s just outside Monaco. At what I perceived to be somewhere north of the speed limit this ultimate road car appeared broadly untroubled by the twisty French coast road.
In Today’s Exchange Invest
China has big plans to expand clearing to Europe while the Qatar SWF still likes holding LSE, whatever the merger outcome. Qatar COO Olivier Gueris moving on…and there’s more, happy scrolling:
In BigWorld
PLY: Reuters notes: “Dow Chemical and DuPont won the blessing of the European Union for their $130 billion merger on Monday by agreeing to sell substantial assets including key research and development activities.”
Parishioners would do well to note the sanguine and logical arguments / remedies proposed by DG Comp and accepted by the companies concerned. Later in the week an announcement by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager and her team which may create an(-other) unseemly whinge-a-thon from some parishioners who not only ought to know better, they indeed ought to have known better than indulge on what I have consistently argued was a merger of equal desperation. In the event of an EU refusal of the ‘MOED” there will, I hasten to add, not be any gloating on my part. I deem it a tragedy that 2 large exchange groups have entirely lost their momentum for more than a year, allowing the major markets to pull further ahead of these second division entities. At the same time, it will be interesting to see if DB1 in particular can react maturely or if they can defeat their world record pram throwing behaviour when the EU understandably stopped NYSE Euronext-DB1.
Public Markets
How Bullish Nex Exchange Boss Patrick Birley Is Taking Aim At The London Stock Exchange’s Junior Market
City A.M.
PLY: “Handsome Patrick” gets a whole lot of bull into this article – and a lot of interesting insights into his plans for NEX to become an SME exchange benchmark.
Qatar Wealth Fund CEO Says To Support LSE Whether Deutsche Merger Goes Ahead Or Not
Reuters
PLY: Blanket support for the exchange which some with prickly tendencies might deem a pointed snub at CEO Xavier Rolet?
Mainland-Hong Kong Bond Connect Is Just The First Step, Says Forex Chief
South China Morning Post
Xu Zhen, chairman of Shanghai Clearing House told the Xinhua News Agency on Saturday that the clearing house would cooperate with the City of London, London Clearing House, the CME Clearing Europe, and Clearstream under Deutsche Börse AG, in a bid to strengthen the “connectivity of financial market infrastructure”.
PLY: Fascinating to see all the agreements routed via Europe and not direct to the US. Also, that ICE is currently left out of the long list is intriguing.
Hong Kong Exchange CEO Says To Consult Market On Weighted Voting Rights
Reuters
PLY: Even placing dual share categories into a new platform is imho a very dangerous move.
MOEX And DCE Announce New Areas Of Cooperation In MOU
MondoVisione
Private Markets
Kuwait To Adopt New Equities Benchmark After Reorganizing Market
Bloomberg
Kuwait’s stock exchange will introduce a new equities benchmark next year after completing a reorganization of its listed companies into new market segments.
Myanmar’s Stock Exchange Struggles A Year After Launch
Nikkei Asian Review
PLY: Again the epitaphs are being eagerly written when the market has had a bare 12 months to get going – insufficient time and too many short term deadlines for journalists rushing to judgement (QV the media wrote LIFFE off as a total fiasco – requiring hilarious doses of humble pie to be digested some years later amongst the rather more smug practitioners of legacy financial media.
Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads
No News today.
Technology
Esprow Releases ETP C-Box Update For Automated MiFID II Compliance Certification
MondoVisione
Products
HKEx CEO: MSCI Consultation May Lead To Index Deal
The Business Times .
Career Paths
PLY: The highly capable Olivier Gueris who has for more than 7 years been COO of the Qatar SE is leaving the company to “pursue new opportunities.” It’s a good opportunity for parish bourses to consider a capable executive to add to their teams, methinks.
Crowdfunding
Wall Street ‘Stockmarket Of Apps’ Crowdfund Scores $100000 From Blockchain Exchange
Forbes
PLY: Roger Aitken’s latest Forbes missive discusses a fascinating DL token crowdfunding platform.
Other Stories
ESMA Discusses Haircuts In EU Securities Financing Transactions
ESMA
Thanks for reading Exchange Invest, I hope spring has sprung if it was due in your neighbourhood.
Patrick
Patrick L Young
Executive Director DV Advisors