Pan-European exchange group Euronext has seen increasing revenues for the second quarter of 2018 driven by its acquisition of the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE), now operating as Euronext Dublin.
Euronext posted revenues of €157.3 million for Q2, an increase of 14.6% year-on-year, while its half-year 2018 revenues were €304 million, up 15.2%.
The improved performance was attributed to the addition of new business lines and revenue diversification from Euronext Dublin, as well as the migration of Euronext’s cash market to the new Optiq platform, launched in July.
“In the second quarter of 2018, Euronext reached a historical milestone with the migration of its cash markets to Optiq, our new state-of-the art trading platform. Optiq provides our clients with cutting-edge performance in terms of latency as well as time to market and flexibility while allowing for optimized hardware footprint. Our new proprietary trading platform enhances our agility and independence, strengthens the value proposition of our federal model, and fosters innovation,” said chief executive of Euronext, Stéphane Boujnah.
“The second quarter also saw the first contribution from Euronext Dublin, that diversifies our revenue profile, strengthens our listing franchise and positions Euronext as the world leading listing venue for debt. Our teams are now working on the integration that is progressing as planned.”
Speaking to The TRADE shortly after the announcing its acquisition of the ISE, Boujnah explained the decision to acquire the ISE was made irrespective of the UK’s departure from the European Union.
“Ireland is a great country with a 3.8% growth prospect in 2018,” he said. “The ISE is a great company with fantastic management and product offering that will contribute to the diversification of our volume driven line.”
At the end of June Daryl Byrne, formerly the ISE’s regulatory compliance chief, was appointed to lead the Euronext Dublin entity, while Chris Topple, formerly head of prime brokerage and clearing sales at Societe Generale, was appointed CEO of Euronext London in late July.