A Short History of Euronext

Euronext began to take shape in the year 2000 after the Amsterdam, Paris and Brussels stock exchanges underwent a merger. The Lisbon Stock Exchange was later also added to the group. However the origins of the exchange go all the way back to the 17th century, when the Amsterdam Stock Exchange opened in 1611. The first exchange of its kind in the world, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange was set up when the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie sold shares in its shipping business in the Far East as a means of financing its operations. The business of this exchange expanded to include options, commodities and other financial instruments. While shares were traded in France from around 1540, the first official exchanges  within France and Belgium were only established in 1801 under Napoleonic rule. The Lisbon Stock Exchange began operations in 1769 under the name Assembleia dos Homens de Negocio, but in 1999 this changed to the Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa e Porto. After the 2000 merger, the Euronext group acquired the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange in 2001, and then the Lisbon Stock Exchange in 2002. In 2006, in order to put off a potential NASDAQ purchase of Euronext, the NYSE group signed up to a merger agreement with the Euronext group to the amount of US$10 billion. NYSE Euronext developed a Universal Trading Platform between 2008 and 2009, which is an electronic trading platform for futures markets, options, equities and bonds. NYSE Euronext was the holding company that combined those businesses, and this was listed on the Euronext Paris and New York Stock Exchange.
Euronext London was launched in 2010, as a securities market based in London with the aim of attracting issuers from overseas. Although Deutsche Borse, a German exchange group, began discussions with a view to purchasing NYSE Euronext in 2011, this planned acquisition was blocked in 2012 by the EU because of concerns that the exchange would be in control of over 90% of European derivatives trades. ICE (Intercontinental Exchange), a global market and clearing house operator, purchased NYSE Euronext in 2013 for the sum of $8.2 billion. After this acquisition, the European operations of Euronext London and NYSE Euronext were separated from ICE’s other operations in order to launch a public offering of Euronext NV, although NYSE and Liffe were maintained as separate entities. To try to stabilise Euronext, a consortium of 11 investment groups took a company stake. Known as “reference shareholders”, these 11 investors own over 30% of the capital in the company, and have agreed to a 3-year lock-up period. These 11 investors are

• Euroclear
• BNP Paribas
• BNP Paribas Fortis
• Societe Generale
• Caisse des Depots
• BPI France
• ABN Amro
• ASR
• Banco Espirito Santo
• Banco BPI
• SFPI

These investors hold a total of three seats on a nine-member board. Euronext operates as an independently listed company, and its shares are traded in Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris, with the symbol ENX.

Euronext Exchange Services

Euronext is an exchange that offers stock trading for companies that are listed across its markets, as well as bonds, equity derivatives, ETFs, commodities, foreign exchange derivatives, indices, warrants and certificates, and structured notes. There are over 1,300 stocks listed on the Euronext exchange, as well as 4,400 fixed-income securities, nine regional commodities, 20 indices, 500 mutual and exchange-traded funds, five types of equity derivative contracts, and six European regional currency contracts.

How Does Euronext Operate?

As one of its primary activities, Euronext sets common rules for its markets, which are approved by each market country’s regulatory body. It also announces the listing of financial instruments and securities on its markets, and approves applications for new listings. Part of its remit is to publish information about prices and trades, and to accept and ensure successful trading transactions between its market members. It also maintains an independent clearing house, which plays the role of a central counterparty and offers a range of financial transactions services to its issuers.

Other Products and Services Offered by Euronext

Alternext
This is a specialised segment of the market for medium-sized and small companies that lack the resources to qualify for the larger regulated market. This segment comprises over 180 listed companies, with a total market capitalisation of 8 billion Euro.
Universal Trading Platform
This is Euronext’s electronic trading service, which was set up in 2010 to facilitate trading across different products and markets. Since it was launched, the service has been made available to operations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Indices
The following European equity indices are managed by Euronext:

• AEX-index
• Bel 20
• CAC 40
• PSI 20