NYSE Taps JPMorgan, Societe Generale for Euronext IPO [REPORT]

NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) has decided to charge JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) and Societe Generale SA (OTCMKTS:SCGLY) (EPA:GLE) with helping it arrange the Initial Public Offering of its European market operations according to a piece that appeared in Businessweek. The piece said the information came from four people  familiar with the matter who did not want to be named.

The IPO, which will see the company’s European operations become a separate company in their own right, is still in the early stages as the interested parties are still looking for regulatory approval in Europe in order to go ahead with the operation. The fact that investment bank advisers have been brought in does mean the process is moving forward, however.

Earlier today NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) revealed that it was investigating a series of bad trades that were carried out this morning. The exchange, which blamed the trades on failure at a trading house, said that it expected to strike most of the trades off.

NYSE Euronext complicated merger

The public offering of Euronext, which operates markets in Brussels, Paris, Lisbon and Amsterdam, is part of a complex deal that will see ownership of NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) operations change hands in multiple ways. IntercontinentalExchange Inc (NYSE:ICE) was offered approval last week by U.S. regulators in its bid to acquire NYSE Euronext for $8.2 billion.

Euronext itself only merged with the New York Stock Exchange in April 2007. That deal was one of the biggest of its kind at the time, with the NYSE paying $14.7 billion for the Euronext set of exchanges, eclipsing the fee being paid by ICE for the entire company. The IPO, which does not include the entirety of Euronext bought in 2007, is expected to raise somewhere in the region of $1 billion.

Stock market business changing

Companies that run stock market indexes are seeing their profitability decline in recent years, while those involved in other kinds of exchanges, most notably in different types of derivatives, are continuing to see a rise in their business. The ICE acquisition of NYSE Euronext (NYSE:NYX) is an exemplary development in this trend.

IntercontinentalExchange Inc (NYSE:ICE) holds much of its business in the Atlanta-based futures exchange that bears its name. The company purchased the New York Board of Trade way back in 2007. The financial exchange business has been one of the most active in recent years in terms of mergers and acquisitions, but a great number of deals have been rejected by regulators worrying about the shrinking number of large firms in the space.