Euronext, seeking significant growth, hails softening of EU merger rules

euronews (in English)

The pan-European stock exchange hopes antitrust officials will cut it some slack as it chases global ambitions.

Transcript

00:00The group is equipped now to be much more ambitious.

00:04We are not anymore the very tiny company that was carved out from the NYSE Euronext acquisition

00:11by ICE in 2014.

00:14Euronext has been fundamentally restructured over the past eight years with, as you mentioned,

00:21the acquisition of the Irish Stock Exchange, the acquisition of Osloburst in Norway, the

00:26acquisition of the Borsa Italiana Group in Italy, but beyond that the group has significantly

00:32diversified in post-trade, in corporate services, in forex, etc.

00:37So the group is much more diversified and much stronger than it was at the time of its

00:41IPO and what we are going to try and do is to grow significantly our ambition in terms

00:51of organic growth.

00:52That's what will be part of the strategic plan we will release on the 8th of November

00:56because really now we are the backbone of the capital market union to grow in post-trade,

01:03in particular in the CSD world, and to offer more integrated services to our clients that

01:11again go beyond the traditional exchange operations.

01:17Last time we spoke you told me one of your concerns with EU policy was on merger policy

01:23in particular and that Europe needed to perhaps think a bit bigger when it was considering

01:28kind of corporate tie-ups.

01:31Why is that so important to you as a company?

01:33Well first it seems that there are good news.

01:36We are in a process where if you look at the language of the L'Etat report, the language

01:42of the Draghi report, the mandate letter or the letter de mission that Mrs. van der Leyen

01:49issued to her commissioners, it's clear that there is a switch towards competitiveness

01:56and strategic autonomy, which means a way forward to revisit some of the aspects or

02:04the features of the concentration regulations in a new environment, in a world where China

02:10has appeared, and China was not around in 1957, in a world where global competition

02:16is more around, maybe the balance between happy customer and strong producers is to

02:23be revisited.

02:24And I think that that's extremely encouraging.

02:26In any event, it's clear that Europe needs to operate and to have decision centers in

02:34Europe in all the chain, in all the segments of the financial sector, clearly.

02:41And the only way to get scale is to consolidate, and that's why I'm a strong believer that

02:49Europe must be equipped now to facilitate consolidation of market infrastructures, of

02:54global banks, of asset managers, while at the same time being able to monitor that those

03:02enlarged players behave in a way that is consistent with consumers' protections.

03:08The world is a better place with Boeing and Airbus than if we had only Boeing.

03:16And the world is going to be a better place if we have European-based large asset managers,

03:22European-based large market infrastructure, and European-based large global investment

03:27banks.

03:27And for that, we need more consolidation, and we need a revisited approach of antitrust.

03:33The relevant market should be looked at at a global stage.

03:37The real competition, I'm not suggesting that this is a deal that should take place in any

03:42way whatsoever, I'm just saying that in the world of today, the battles for derivatives

03:48is not Deutsche Börse against Euronext.

03:51It's Deutsche Börse, Euronext, ICE, CME, CBOE, etc.

03:56There are various ways of implementing cross-border deals.

04:02I remember that when Deutsche Börse failed to merge with LSE, everyone was saying Deutsche

04:08Börse did not manage to merge with LSE, LSE did not manage to merge with Deutsche Börse.

04:14Hence, cross-border consolidation of exchanges in Europe is impossible.

04:18Well, in 2018, we acquired the Irish Stock Exchange in Dublin.

04:24In 2019, we acquired Osterbörs in Norway.

04:29In 2020, we acquired VP Securities in Copenhagen.

04:32In 2021, we acquired Borsa Italiana Group.

04:35So, there are ways to make these type of deals happen, even for iconic companies.

04:43And the recipe is respect and transparency, and also to make sure that everyone feels

04:52at home in the combined group.

04:55We've seen a lot of commentary on Europe recently that's been a bit pessimistic in tone.

04:59We saw the report from Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta saying, you know, Europe is falling

05:04behind the US in the competitiveness race, we're losing out.

05:08Do you share that kind of pessimism, or do you have hope for the European economy?

05:13That's why I'm optimistic, because this is home.

05:17I have no other place than Europe, and I have no other future than making it a better place.

05:22And I have no other option than to build stronger organisations, and I have no better story

05:27or future than fixing what needs to be fixed, whatever it is.

05:33Now, for the ones who believe that it's too complicated that we're falling behind, too

05:39bad.

05:40They should have been born in Australia.

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