24 November 2011

BATS wins final approval to buy Chi-X Europe

BATS Global Markets said Thursday it had secured formal approval from UK regulators to acquire Chi-X Europe, clearing the way for the US group to control the largest pan-European platform for share trading. The announcement came five weeks after the UK Competition Commission gave preliminary approval for the proposed $305 million deal announced in February after launching an in-depth probe during the summer.

The UK antitrust review led BATS to push back plans for a listing on its soon-to-be-launched listings venue until early next year, people familiar with the situation said in August.

BATS had previously said it hoped by year end to close the purchase of Chi-X Europe, which used high-speed trading technology and cheap pricing to capture almost a fifth of the region's share trading just five years after its launch. The company didn't comment on a closing date in a statement announcing the antitrust clearance.

"We will now focus on completing the combination of BATS Europe and Chi-X Europe to create an even more formidable competitor in pan-European securities trading, offering greater market efficiencies for the entire investing community", said Joe Ratterman, BATS's chairman and chief executive.

BATS already operates equity and options platforms in the US and launched its own share-trading facility in Europe, which the company said had secured a 5.5 per cent market share by the third quarter of this year, compared to 19.5 per cent for Chi-X Europe.

The regulatory clearance had been widely expected after antitrust officials said in October that customers had enough power to maintain competition in the market, despite reservations over combining two new entrants to markets deregulated in 2007. The BATS-Chi-X deal was initially expected to close before the end of June. It was seen as one of the least contentious among a raft of other cross-border exchange mergers.

Press release

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