By Huw Jones
LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Pan-European exchange Euronext
said on Thursday it was listening to calls from top banks and
asset managers about finding a way to trade on alternative
platforms when there are lengthy outages like last month.
A series of glitches disrupted trading on Euronext on Oct.
19, raising concerns about the risk of one operator hosting so
many bourses, just as the Paris-headquartered exchange is set to
buy Borsa Italiana for 4.3 billion euros.
There was a further, more minor glitch on Monday, prompting
industry body AFME to call for a mechanism to allow trading to
switch to other venues in an orderly way during outages.
Outages on exchanges where shares have their primary listing
can freeze trading in the same shares on rival platforms,
leaving investors in the lurch.
"We are listening to all suggestions of all clients, it's
important to have a constructive debate on all the issues,"
Euronext CEO Stephane Boujnah told a media call.
"We are taking appropriate steps to make sure that this
situation is addressed," he said, whilst reiterating his belief
in the model of a European infrastructure.
The federal model of linking Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam,
Dublin, Oslo and Lisbon under the Euronext banner is justified
by the need to simplify trading, cut costs for clients and
provide deeper liquidity, Boujnah said.
Euronext aims to complete its purchase of Borsa Italiana in
the first half of 2021 if its owner London Stock Exchange gets
the green light in January from the EU to buy data and analytics
company Refinitiv, he added.
Euronext shareholders meet on Nov. 20 to consider the
purchase, and execute a private placement and rights offer to
fund the acquisition after the deal has been completed.
Euronext reported third quarter revenues of 204.8 million
euros on Thursday, up 12.7% from the same quarter in 2019. Net
income rose 10.6% to 70.2 million euros.
The exchange continued to diversify earnings away from share
trading volumes, with non-volume related revenues now at 54% of
the total, up from 52% last year.
(Reporting by Huw Jones
Editing by Alexandra Hudson)