NYSE CEO eager for megers despite Deutsche Boerse fiasco

Despite the European Commission (EC) scuttling the merger plan of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Deutsche Boerse AG, the Big Board's boss is keen to look at other merger and acquisition opportunities around the world.

''There are a lot of near term opportunities in clearing and technology that are getting us pretty excited about 2012,'' Duncan Niederauer, chief executive of the NYSE told reporters. ''NYSE Technologies will be a significant contributor to future growth as we aim to become the facilitator and enabler of the capital markets community.''

The EC last week scuppered a $7.4 billion takeover of the NYSE by the German exchange – which would have created the world's largest stock exchange operator – on anti-trust grounds. ''I'm still glad we tried the Deutsche Boerse merger,'' said Niederauer. ''We are in a position to grow the company through strategic mergers and acquisitions. It may not be as easy to do mega, cross-border mergers as we might have once thought but, given our strong balance sheet, there's a lot more we can do.''

NYSE reported a nearly 19 per cent fall in fourth-quarter net profit, to $110 million from $135 million a year ago. Revenues, however, were up at $628 million from $613 million.
 
The NYSE CEO admitted the exchange was keen on LCH.Clearnet, the European clearing house. ''We're very interested in what happens to that asset,'' he declared. ''As the largest shareholder and largest customer, we see a great deal of potential in LCH.Clearnet.''

The Big Board would expand its US clearing business, besides setting up a full service clearing house in the UK for listed and over-the-counter derivatives.

Niederauer also expects double-digit revenue growth from the NYSE Technologies division in 2012. He also aims to cut expenses, return capital to shareholders and expand electronic trading services.
 
Michael Geltzeiler, chief financial officer, said that despite challenging market conditions, the fourth-quarter results were solid with an increasing contribution from non-trading revenue sources and continued cost discipline.

A leading global operator of financial markets and provider of innovative trading technologies, NYSE Euronext is the holding company and the first cross-border exchange group created by the combination of NYSE Group, Inc. and Euronext N.V in 2007. Its exchanges located in Europe and the US trade equities, futures, options, fixed-income, and exchange-traded products.
 
NYSE Euronext's equities markets, which include the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Euronext, NYSE Amex, NYSE Alternext and NYSE Arca, represent one-third of the world's equities trading.