The London Stock Exchange has been the subject of possible and potential offers for months, but for all the talk and speculation, there has not been a firm offer. However, that moment may be fast approaching, as the UK Competition Commission prepares its verdict on merger remedies. That sense of fundamental movement being on the way extends to the bond market. The dominance of the London and Luxembourg exchanges as Eurobond listing centres has been threatened since the chaotic implementation of

It has been a good year according to Lee Olesky, CEO of TradeWeb. “This has been a huge year in terms of adding new products, and though its been a big undertaking, we have the skill set. We’ve been doing this the longest, we have the technology team in place and the innovative product and sales team to deliver,” he said. (TradeWeb is owned by Thomson, IFR’s parent company.) TradeWeb recorded global volume growth of 66% year-on-year in the first half of 2005, with average daily volumes of more t

Market Axess has a presence in a wide array of markets in the business-to-customer sector, and faces varied competition. It is in the same territory as Bloomberg, which has a request-for-quote business; in the SAS (sovereigns, agencies and supranationals)/covered bond sector TradeWeb is a prominent competitor, while in trading government bonds Market Axess is up against Bond Vision, which is run by MTS. “Increasingly we would call it [Market Axess] a credit market platform as opposed to a corpor

According to the latest figures from the Bank for International Settlements, trading on the international derivatives exchanges continued its strong upward trend during the second quarter of 2005. Combined turnover in fixed income, equity index and currency contracts increased by 11% to US$372tr, after a 20% rise in the previous quarter (see chart 1). The product sector exhibiting the strongest growth is fixed income, primarily short-term interest rate futures and options (see Chart 2). Within t

In March this year, Debtdomain, a Singapore-based syndicated loan trading platform, was declared insolvent by the Singapore High Court and placed under judicial management. As a result, it became the third Asian “exempt exchange alias Recognized Trading System” to be made bankrupt. The first two, asiabondportal (ABP) and BondsInAsia (BIA), had failed to turn over a profit from offering trade execution and bank analysis for Asia’s fixed income market, despite the involvement of many of the bigges

When Asian Citrus Holdings looked at raising capital to expand its plantations in China, like many mainland Chinese firms the company first looked to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. Then in December last year, company officials got a surprise call from the London Stock Exchange, suggesting the company – the PRC’s largest provider of oranges to the mainland market – instead list on its Alternative Investment Market International (AIM) board. “The first place we thought to get listed was Hong Kon

The prospect of a new market is always attractive for bankers, but it is often a challenge to achieve its full potential. For ECM bankers Eastern Europe certainly had a lot of promise and has had some success, but this has not been easy and activity in several local markets remains patchy at best. Poland and Turkey have become established markets with a relatively stable flow of transactions, but countries such as the Baltic states and Romania have not been able to turn a pipeline into genuine d

The EU Prospectus Directive (PD), which came into effect on July 1, has been a major talking point for issuers, bankers and lawyers through the quiet summer months. The general feeling has been one of frustration at the implementation process. The directive is intended to provide standard listing requirements across the EU member states, a move that will ultimately allow issuers to sell securities across jurisdictions in a more efficient manner. Although the final result should be a positive ste

No firm offer has yet been tabled for the London Stock Exchange (LSE). That fact may be difficult to remember in a takeover situation that stretches back to just before Christmas 2004, when the Deutsche Boerse first revealed that it was in discussions with the LSE, with a view to making a cash offer. As Christmas comes around again, the Deutsche Boerse finds itself searching for a new chief executive. Werner Seifert was axed in May 2005 following a sustained and successful anti-takeover campaign

According to Philippe Rakotovao, deputy CEO of MTS and EuroMTS, his firm’s business model - and the commitment it demands from participating banks to make markets - must be seen in context. “In Europe, you have 11 borrowers that issue benchmarks in each maturity,” he says. “They all generally have the same issuance policy, methodology and broad targets, but they compete for investor attention. In the US, there is just one issuer [the US Treasury].” The roots of European trading and the MTS model