The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has sold stakes in its recently acquired multilateral trading facility (MTF) Turquoise to three major banks.
Barclays Bank, J.P. Morgan Cazenove and Japan-based investment bank Nomura have each bought 3% stakes for £1 million cash.
“Our desire is to work with all participants to grow the market for trading European shares and Turquoise’s share of that marketplace in both lit and dark,” said David Lester, CEO, Turquoise. “We have set ambitious plans for this year with the introduction of new trading technology and additional products and services as well as promoting existing products such as TQ Lens, the innovative non-displayed liquidity aggregation service.”
The exchange completed its purchase of bank-owned Turquoise on 18 February in a deal which gave the LSE a 60% stake and left the MTF’s original nine owners with 40%. The LSE said 9% of its stake had been earmarked for future potential investors. Today’s announcement leaves the LSE with a 51% controlling stake and the 12 banks with 49%.
“Nomura is committed to becoming a top liquidity provider and the aggregator of choice in Europe, equipping its clients with access to all available liquidity pools,” commented Rachid Bouzouba, co-head, global equities, Nomura. “We have worked closely with the London Stock Exchange over the last year to achieve this goal and our stake in Turquoise is the logical next step as we reinforce our leading position across the European markets.”
The LSE plans to merge Turquoise with Baikal, a dark pool and liquidity aggregation service the exchange was developing before the acquisition. Integration work has already begun and the two platforms will be migrated to new trading technology supplied by MillenniumIT, a Sri-Lankan technology firm the LSE acquired for US$30 million in September last year.
The exchange has also added Czech, Hungarian and UK stocks to TQ Lens, Turquoise’s existing dark pool aggregation service and is close to finalising its senior management team for the platform.
Turquoise was originally launched in September 2008 after founding members Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS committed to launching a pan-European platform to rival incumbent domestic exchanges.