The merger of Tradepoint, fledgling rival to the London Stock Exchange, and the Swiss Stock Exchange (SWX) was confirmed yesterday. With it came a pledge to have the combined virt-x trading system up and running by March 2001.
The deal, which was first announced in July, will see SWX cease trading in Swiss blue chip shares in deference to the new market, which aims to be the first Pan-European market for blue chip shares. SWX is to take a 38.9 per cent stake in virt-x in exchange for transferring trading in Swiss blue chips to the new market.
A consortium of banks and financial institutions controlling Tradepoint will take a similar stake in exchange for funding comprising £15.3m ($22m) from exercising warrants and new shares and £23.5m in loans set against future trading fees. The consortium members include Instinet, the financial markets arm of Reuters, the investment banks ABN Amro, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and UBS Warburg, the fund manager American Century, and Archipelago, an electronic trading system.
Virt-x will be based in London and governed by UK regulatory standards. The London Clearing House will provide a central counterparty for cross-border trading. Antoinette Hunziker-Ebneter, chief executive of SWX, who is to take the same role in virt-x, said: 'The creation of virt-x is a major step forward for pan-European equity trading. It will be a liquid pan-European exchange for trading blue chip stocks operating under a single regulatory environment and supported by an integrated trading, clearing and settlement infrastructure.'
Under the agreement, virt-x will have exclusive use of SWX’s EBS trading platform and it will commission the SWX to invest at least SFr22.5m ($12.5m) in developing the platform.
With many European stock exchanges currently under pressure to consolidate, the virt-x model has been hailed as the model that other exchanges could adopt. Few other bourses are as willing as SWX to have their blue chip stocks traded under the jurisdiction of another country.
.
Network Tweets
Network BlogsContent
provided by
|
Archive | Resources | Partners | Site Map | Links | Newsletter Archive | Contact | RSS Feeds | About | Syndication | Advertising & Marketing | Recruitment | Terms & Conditions | Privacy & Cookies
Copyright © 2012 - All Rights Reserved - Tax-News.com
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Tax-News.com has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments.
Write a comment