Bourse mergers deemed inevitable
By Jonathan Spicer |
March 5, 2011, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FOREIGNERS swooping in to buy national stock exchanges - those proud centerpieces of capitalism - would surely meet fierce resistance.
Right?
"I don't see a problem," said US Representative Barney Frank. "Are we supposed to be stupid that we don't know this is an international thing, that transactions are mobile and that they transcend borders?"
Frank, the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee in Washington, bristled at the suggestion Americans should be alarmed that Germany's Deutsche Boerse is taking over Big Board parent NYSE Euronext.
"Nobody is going to be able to operate the NYSE, no matter who owns it and be exempt from SEC regulations, so what's to worry about it?" the lawmaker said at the Reuters Future Face of Finance Summit in New York this week.
Frank wasn't alone in shrugging off the blockbuster merger, the largest of a rash of tie-ups that were unveiled last month. The nonchalance could come as a surprise for anyone awaiting fireworks after a frenetic few weeks of deal-making among some of the world's top market operators.
Also in February, the London Stock Exchange bid for Toronto Stock Exchange parent TMX Group, and alternative venues BATS and Chi-X Europe unveiled a big tie-up.
Late last year, the Singapore Exchange said it would buy Australia's ASX Ltd - reviving a wave of bourse mergers after a quiet few years, and stoking some of the pride and nationalism that has scuttled such deals in the past.
While some politicians in North America and Europe initially took umbrage, including New York Senator Charles Schumer, most speakers at the Reuters summit who could have a say in blocking the deals met the topic with a veritable yawn.
"I think it's kind of a natural evolution," said Mary Schapiro, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. "It strikes me as a not unusual progression in the global consolidation of markets."
The international exchange tie-ups are being sold to shareholders and others as necessary to stay abreast of the inevitable march to a global, interconnected marketplace - and to not be left behind.
Exchange executives left out of the merger frenzy provided some of the sharpest critiques at the summit.
"Countries are going to have ask themselves whether or not the capital formation business in their country is just part of a global network or whether they want their own national champions that are working on capital markets," said Jeffrey Sprecher, chief executive of IntercontinentalExchange Inc.
Right?
"I don't see a problem," said US Representative Barney Frank. "Are we supposed to be stupid that we don't know this is an international thing, that transactions are mobile and that they transcend borders?"
Frank, the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee in Washington, bristled at the suggestion Americans should be alarmed that Germany's Deutsche Boerse is taking over Big Board parent NYSE Euronext.
"Nobody is going to be able to operate the NYSE, no matter who owns it and be exempt from SEC regulations, so what's to worry about it?" the lawmaker said at the Reuters Future Face of Finance Summit in New York this week.
Frank wasn't alone in shrugging off the blockbuster merger, the largest of a rash of tie-ups that were unveiled last month. The nonchalance could come as a surprise for anyone awaiting fireworks after a frenetic few weeks of deal-making among some of the world's top market operators.
Also in February, the London Stock Exchange bid for Toronto Stock Exchange parent TMX Group, and alternative venues BATS and Chi-X Europe unveiled a big tie-up.
Late last year, the Singapore Exchange said it would buy Australia's ASX Ltd - reviving a wave of bourse mergers after a quiet few years, and stoking some of the pride and nationalism that has scuttled such deals in the past.
While some politicians in North America and Europe initially took umbrage, including New York Senator Charles Schumer, most speakers at the Reuters summit who could have a say in blocking the deals met the topic with a veritable yawn.
"I think it's kind of a natural evolution," said Mary Schapiro, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. "It strikes me as a not unusual progression in the global consolidation of markets."
The international exchange tie-ups are being sold to shareholders and others as necessary to stay abreast of the inevitable march to a global, interconnected marketplace - and to not be left behind.
Exchange executives left out of the merger frenzy provided some of the sharpest critiques at the summit.
"Countries are going to have ask themselves whether or not the capital formation business in their country is just part of a global network or whether they want their own national champions that are working on capital markets," said Jeffrey Sprecher, chief executive of IntercontinentalExchange Inc.
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