Control of Australia’s second stock exchange is changing hands with one of the biggest exchanges in the world, Cboe, buying the Australian and Japanese markets run by Chi-X.
Chicago-headquartered Cboe operates the huge Chicago Board of Exchange Options market as well as the global markets system BATS. Through this it runs six equities exchanges, covering 19 countries in the US and Europe.
Cboe said on Wednesday in the US that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Chi-X Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd from private equity group J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC. Flowers specialises in investments in financial services.
“This acquisition will provide Cboe with a single point of entry into two key capital markets – Australia and Japan– to help enable it to expand its global equities business into Asia Pacific, bring other products and services to the region, and further expand access to its unique proprietary product suite in the region,Cboe said.
The transaction is expected to close in the second or third quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.
Chi-X has an 18.4% share of local trading, having lured that business away from the ASX since launching here in 2008.
Japan Chi-X Japan is third largest equities venue in the country with a 2.7% ‘lit’ market share
“Transaction positions Cboe to further execute on its strategy to build one of the world’s largest global equities and derivatives trading networks, expanding its global market data offering and access to its proprietary products,” the company said.
