ICE Tries to Bid for NYSE Euronext, Again
December 19, 2012
IntercontinentalExchange Inc., the energy and commodity futures venue that was part of a hostile bid for NYSE Euronext last year, now is in talks to acquire the New York Stock Exchange owner, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
The cash-and-stock proposal may be announced as soon as this week, said the person, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. NYSE Euronext shares rose in late New York trading after the Wall Street Journal reported the negotiations earlier.
Combining the owners of the biggest American stock exchange and the second-largest futures market may revive the wave of exchange takeover offers from 2011, almost all of which failed. ICE’s joint bid with Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. to acquire NYSE was rejected by the U.S. Justice Department on concern the combination would dominate U.S. stock listings.
“This is a much easier deal to get done,” said Brian Barish, who helps oversee about $7 billion including about 4 million NYSE Euronext shares as president and chief investment officer of Denver-based Cambiar Investors LLC. “When Nasdaq was talking about doing something with NYSE, there were obvious antitrust market concentration problems. ICE is a totally different story because they don’t do equities.”
Atlanta-based ICE, its shares up 6.4 percent this year, has a market value of $9.3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. NYSE Euronext, whose stock fell 7.9 percent in 2012, has a capitalization of $5.8 billion. NYSE Euronext closed at $24.05 earlier and rose as much as 29 percent to $31 in trading after U.S. exchanges closed.
Sprecher Bid
Richard Adamonis, a spokesman at NYSE Euronext, said the company doesn’t comment on rumors. Brookly McLaughlin, an Intercontinental spokeswoman, said the company doesn’t comment of rumors or speculation.
ICE, led by Chief Executive Officer Jeff Sprecher, joined Nasdaq and CEO Robert Greifeld in an unsolicited bid for NYSE Euronext in April 2011. The offer, scuttled by the Justice Department seven weeks later, sought to derail NYSE’s pending merger agreement with Deutsche Boerse AG.
That deal was rejected by European competition authorities in February. NYSE Euronext subsequently began a cost-cutting plan known as Project 14 and said on Nov. 6 that it has made savings of $82 million so far this year, 33 percent of the total $250 million expected by the end of 2014.
European Bourses
In addition to the New York Stock Exchange, the company operates bourses in Paris, Lisbon, Brussels and Amsterdam and London-based Liffe, Europe’s second-largest derivatives market.
