Back on terra firma in Europe after that high altitude edition yesterday…
In Today’s Exchange Invest
A frantic week comes to a close, as tad frantically… Repercussions blowing through on the extent of the DB1-LSE Phase 2 competition review as LSE furiously waves its appeasement sop of selling Clearnet in everybody’s faces. MCX shares have been soaring since the super somewhat seismic announcement of commodity options being permitted by SEBI. Don’t forget CBOE-BATS, which is an excellent deal also being digested by the scribblers while we have a new President of ICE Clear US and…lots lots more…
In BigWorld
100 days since the British electorate voted to leave the European Union. Lots of hot air since but no signs the UK is yet worse off as the hubristic blob was eager to assert.
Events
Spot the banner to the left of this, it’s coming up to Burgenstock. Slightly later than normal, ICDA will meet in Geneva mid-November, a touch later but with a strong impact remaining. Interesting line-up still filling out for continental Europe’s leading derivatives event, you ought to be there…
Public Markets
French Sacrifice May Not Be Sufficient For LSE/DB1
Financial News (subscription)
PLY: The rather paltry act of appeasement which had already been broadly trailed for months came out yesterday with all the impact of a wet fish on concrete. Let’s face, it the word on the street was that XavRol was eager to get rid of, er, profit poor, Clearnet for ages (way before he seduced the DB1 dudes into the Merger of Equal Destruction). After more than 6 months, that the merging parties have nothing better to offer, suggests they are doubling down on what looks like a remarkably exposed transaction.
I still remain to be convinced (not that the DB1 or LSE executive ever bothered on that front) that there is merit in this deal.
DB1-LSE Merger: Milan Has Some Cards To Play
Italy’s business news in English from Il Sole 24 Ore
Let’s be clear: the merger concerns the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse. They are the protagonists. Milan only plays a cameo role.
Warping The Loom
The Economist
PLY: From takeovers to tick pilot, the Economist weaves its way through US trading venues in that ‘makes you sound intelligent at dinner parties’ house style.
BGC Partners Updates Its Outlook For Q3 2016
MondoVisione
LME Confirms Plan To Freeze Warehouse Rental Rates For 5 Years
Reuters
PLY: LME management are working assiduously to freeze waehouse fees and, at the same time, unfreeze warehouse queues.
Hong Kong Loses Out to Singapore in Corporate Governance Survey
South China Morning Post
PLY: Dual class shares at SGX ought to help balance things out – just give it a few years.
MCX Has Room & First Mover Advantage To Capitalize In Growing Option Space
IndiaNotes
PLY: Leaving Shahdenfreude aside (Mr Jignesh may see this as another sign of how the establishment has always been against him), the enabling of options on commodities (qv EI yesterday) is seismic for the Indian market and particularly MCX…
SGX Working With Firms To Deter Market Rigging
The Straits Times
PLY: Good.
SGX Targets Asian Freight Market With Baltic Buy
The Straits Times
PLY: Logical
A Class Of Their Own: Why SGX Is Launching Dual Class Shares, & What It Means
The Middle Ground
PLY: Bad
Cadillac Fairview & TMX Group Announce Lease Agreement In Montréal
TMX
TMX to relocate to Deloitte Tower in Quad Windosr District.
Plus500 Founders Sell Stock At Significant Discount To Market, Shares Down 16%
LeapRate
CompaniesPlus500 Founders Gain £100m Windfall From Share Sale
Financial Times
In total (see table below), the Plus500 founders – Alon Gonen, Gal Haber, Elad Ben-Izhak, Omer Elazari and Shlomi Weizmann – sold 15.5 million shares via investment banks Berenburg & Co. and Liberum Capital at a price of £6.50 per share – 13% below Plus500’s closing price Wednesday of £7.50.
PLY: FT misses the point (odd given how Dan McCrum led the charge against Plus 500 a while back) whereas readers may share my deep misgiving that a clutch of founders are so eager to cash in on the group and will even enable a great discount to do so…
Private Markets
FTIL Sells Entire Stake In Bourse Africa For $10.5 million
Livemint
Bourse Africa Ltd was a wholly-owned subsidiary company of FT Group Investments Pvt. Ltd which in turn is a wholly-owned subsidiary of FTIL.
PLY: Interesting deal, and at a discount to previous agreement in 2014 by CAHL which comprises Africa Export Import Bank (Afreximbank), Keynes Private Equity (KPE), Pan African Capital Plc (PACP), First Heritage Business Corporation (FHBC) and GMEX Technologies Ltd (GMEX).
BSE International Stock Exchange To Go Live In January
Business Standard
PLY: Raid pace but understandable given the testing timetable outlined recently.
Rise Of Algo Trading In India
Bloomberg
Bloomberg’s Harsha Subramaniam spoke to NSE India CEO Chitra Ramkrishna.
PLY: I well remember seeing the then virgin NSE colo facility ready for outfitting when I was in Bombay a few years back. It was a large white multistorey tower space which suggested Tom Cruise would drop by on a wire Mission Impossible style to extract data and disappear on the trail of multinational mega-villains.
Kirk Touts Bill To Refund $154K to Chicago Stock Exchange
The Capitol Fax Blog (blog)
This legislation will directly impact Chicago by compelling the SEC to return $154,000 in overpaid fees to the Chicago Stock Exchange,
Bill Introduced in Canadian Parliament Would Vanquish ‘Zombie’ Directors Who Fail To Win Majority Shareholder Support
Financial Post
PLY: The phrase “zombie directors” is just so tempting to comment on…
Boursa Kuwait Vice Chairman & CEO, Khaled Abdulrazzaq Alkhaled On The Future For His Bourse
Zawya (press release)
Brokers Reject Pre-Trade Data Leak Claim By Liquidnet
The Australian
Special Section: FTI, NSEL, India at the Crossroads
PLY: No direct news but note that FTIL has finally sold its Bourse Africa stake for 10.5 million dollars and MCX stock continues to excite attention after the news of SEBI permitting commodity options.
Technology
Low-Code Development Pays Off For Commodities Exchange
InformationWeek
PLY: Interesting story about CME.
PLY: Another day, another type of turret alongside Green Key and the various incumbents going through rounds of merger and private funding. Interesting times and good luck to enepath.
Gatecoin Adds Ethereum-Based eSports Dapp Token FirstBlood For Trading
CoinJournal (blog)
PLY: Interesting.
Regulators Block Sale of Bitcoin Miner Avalon
CoinDesk
The deal is said to have been scuttled as a result of apprehension on the part of regulators from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Products
CME Declares Force Majeure To Allow Only RBOB Gasoline Deliveries For NYMEX Oct 2016 Futures
Reuters
Career Paths
Tom Hammond will retire as President of ICE Clear US and be replaced with former JP Morgan clearing head Hester Serafini.
PLY: Good luck to Hester and all the very best to Tom on his retirement after a long and productive career. Readers will recall ICE Clear Europe saw the retirement of COO Mike Gibson and his replacement by Francois Lepart.
Martin Fraenkel formerly of CME, has been named President of S&P Global Platts.
PLY: Good luck to Martin. Just the other day, Ian Dudden announced he too was joining Platts as head of Ags on Monday. Sounds like interesting times around at Platts.
HK SFC announced the appointment of Thomas Atkinson, Executive Director of Enforcement, as a member of both the Securities Compensation Fund Committee (Note 1) and the Investor Compensation Fund Committee (Note 2) effective 28 September 2016.
Full committee membership lists are available on the SFC website.
NZX has appointed Benjamin Phillips as Head of Market Operations. Benjamin has held the Head of Clearing role at NZX since joining in September 2014 and his appointment follows the resignation of Chief Operating Officer Mandy Simpson.
ESMA) has appointed new chairs to three of its standing committees:
- Hannelore Lausch, Executive Director of the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin), Germany, will chair the Market Data Standing Committee;
- Cyril Roux, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI, will chair the Investment Management Standing Committee; and
- Merel van Vroonhoven, Chair of the Autoriteit Financiële Markten (AFM), Netherlands, will chair the Investor Protection and Intermediaries Standing Committee.
Crowdfunding
$127m Raised For African Crowdfunding Projects In 2015
Disrupt Africa
There were 57 crowdfunding platforms operational across Africa in 2015,
New eSports Cryptocurrency eBoost Crowdfunding Raises Over 150 BTC
EconoTimes
PLY: Very interesting.
How Equity Crowdfunding Could Level the Playing Field for Female Entrepreneurs
Fortune
PLY: Not new but the message resounds…
Other Stories
Crash Bang Wallop: The Inside Story of London’s Big Bang
Evening Standard
PLY: New book by leading UK political journalist Iain Martin which ought to be worth reading.
SEC Announces Agenda For October 5 Meeting Of The Advisory Committee On Small And Emerging Companies
MondoVisione
ESMA Consults On Future Rules For Financial Benchmarks
MondoVisione