IBS Journal - Mergers & Acquisitions

Share this article

The ghost of exchange consolidation past made an unexpected appearance in late December when Atlanta's IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) made an audacious GBP 6.2bn bid for NYSE Euronext.  Throughout 2010 and 2011, exchange M&A was rife with these two powerhouses being involved in a number of different deals including NYSE's failed GBP 6bn merger with Deutsche Borse, which ICE attempted to scupper with its own joint effort with Nasdaq to buy NYSE.

Now ICE has gone it alone and agreed a deal that will see the relative upstart take over NYSE Euronext. Whereas anti-competition issues stood in the way of Deutsche Boerse and NYSE's merger, as well as Nasdaq's involvement in its own hostile tender for the New York bourse, ICE is potentially able to escape such obstacles. ICE is a commodities exchange and holds no equities or financial derivatives, making any takeover pretty much free of asset crossovers – aside from some soft commodities traded on both ICE and NYSE's Liffe platform. With ICE cementing itself as a global exchange leader, could 2013 see stage two of mass exchange consolidation?

Away from exchanges, HSBC sold its 15.57% stake in Chinese insurance giant, Ping An, for GBP 5.83bn. Thailand-based agricultural conglomerate, Charoen Pokphand Group, snapped up the stake on offer as HSBC continues to dispose of noncore investments.

Alongside HSBC, Barclays, KBC, Dexia, Societe Generale and Bayerische Landesbank completed the list of banks offloading assets in December. The banking community remains delicate, especially in Europe where the majority of sellers derived last month. Offloading assets is still key to many banks across Europe, and sales amounting to GBP 4.65bn plus the GBP 5.83bn HSBC-Ping An bookending 2012 the indications are that 2013 could continue in a similar.

Paul Francis-Grey, mergermarket