Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) has agreed to purchase a 30% stake in soon-to-be-launched multilateral trading facility Aquis Exchange, in a deal that values the trading venue at £16.5 million.
The deal will give the WSE 30% of the total vote at the Aquis’ general meeting and the Polish exchange will also have a right to nominate two non-executive directors to the Aquis board.
The £5 million deal gives Aquis an overall value of £16.5 million.
Aquis intends to launch in October dependent on approval from UK markets watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority and will offer a tiered subscription-based pricing model based on offerings seen in the telecommunications industry.
Speaking to theTRADEnews.com, Aquis Exchange CEO Alasdair Haynes said WSE met the venue’s criteria for a partner.
“It was very important for us to have a strategic partner that is not a customer or a client, and Warsaw Stock Exchange is a fast-growing entity with access to an area of significant economic growth in Europe,” he said.
Haynes, formerly CEO of European MTF Chi-X Europe, said Warsaw’s backing of Aquis would result in cross platform initiatives to give both sets of clients access to markets.
“We intend to offer access to Central and Eastern Europe and we will be working on initiatives to benefit both Aquis and WSE clients, with greater access to each other's offerings,” Haynes said.
Adam Maciejewski, president and CEO of WSE, told theTRADEnews.com the two venues would work on new initiatives that could be announced as early as the next few weeks.
“We wanted to extend our focus beyond Central and Eastern Europe and we believe Aquis Exchange can create something completely new in European equity trading, which is already a very competitive environment,” Maciejewski said.