SWX Group and Deutsche Brse AG said they will create a joint subsidiary called “Alex” for trading in structured products.
Launching on 1 January 2007, the companies’ goals are to make Alex the leading exchange in its European market segment.
The companies also have two other corporate ventures, Eurex and STOXX. Eurex runs futures and options exchanges, while STOXX provides security market indices.
Alex will be available in exchanges in Germany and Switzerland, and different pricing will be available to allow issuers to choose market models suited to their trading.
“In an initial step, Alex will be the parent of a new exchange in Switzerland as of 1 January 2007, into which SWX will spin-off its existing business in warrants and structured products,” says a Deutsche Brse spokesperson. “Simultaneously, Alex will become co-parent of the warrants and certificate trading business on the Frankfurt Exchange, thus gaining a link to European participants and issuers. Trading on the Swiss-based exchange will initially be conducted via SWX’s Quotematch system, which was successfully introduced almost a year ago. Via this platform, issuers can list their products quickly and inexpensively by means of the Internet Based Listing process. In the German market, the Xetra trading platform will come into play in early 2008 to simplify access for European participants.”
Alex’s holding company will be based in Luxembourg with a two-man management board: Marc Zahn, CEO and former head of marketing and sales of SWS Swiss Exchange and London-based blue chip virt-x and Michael Jung, CFO/COO and previous senior project manager at Deutsche Brse.