The US technology exchange Nasdaq is sticking to its aim of launching a European trading platform, perhaps as early as next spring, despite turbulence in the stock exchange sector in Europe, Nasdaq chief Frank Zarb said on Wednesday.
Nasdaq looks set to play an important role in the current takeover war between European stock exchanges because it would prove an attractive transatlantic partner in any feasible constellation.
Zarb said in an interview with the business daily Handelsblatt that following the collapse of merger talks between the London and Frankfurt stock exchanges, Nasdaq aimed to continue its talks with Deutsche Boerse, the company which operates the Frankfurt market.
And he hoped that national interests would play only a small role in any future decisioins regarding alliances or mergers.
"A combination of stock exchanges is no normal takeover operation, it is extremely important that everyone understands that," Zarb told the newspaper.
"If an exchange is created which offers financial benefits to its shareholders, but doesn't bring much to users, then the deal won't be done."
Short-sighted national interests currently represented the biggest dangers for international trading places, Zarb said.
Zarb appeared to rule out an alliance with the small Swedish technology group OM Gruppen whose hostile takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange recently torpedoed the planned iX merger between London and Frankfurt.
"OM is a good company, ambitious and with vision," Zarb said recently. "But it is not enough simply to have technology and a platform."
Zarb declined to comment on rumors that Nasdaq would launch a joint bid for the LSE with Deutsche Boerse.
But observers consider it unlikely that Nasdaq will become the LSE's white knight on its own because the US exchange has enough problems of its own, Handelsblatt said.
Nevertheless, Nasdaq still hoped to have a European operating up and running, perhaps by next spring, but definitely during the course of next year, Zarb said.
"We'll continue to pursue energetically our strategy. Sometimes you have to make a detour to the left or to the right. But we're still heading the same direction."— (AFP)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
