Euronext eyes moving assets from LCH to CC&G - chief Boujnah

The chief executive of Euronext has said his group is looking to move business away from its incumbent clearing house LCH to the Italian clearing house CC&G that Euronext acquired as part of Borsa Italiana in April.

Speaking on an earnings call on Thursday, Stephane Boujnah, the head of Euronext, said his firm is already looking at moving business from the French arm of LCH, its current clearer owned by LSE Group, to Milan-based CC&G.

Boujnah said on Thursday: “We are looking at how much, which assets, at what pace, in what timeframe and for which clients we could migrate assets from LCH SA to CC&G but we need an understanding of all the implications in terms of cost, revenue and risk.”

Boujnah said the fact that Euronext owns for the first time in its history 100% of a clearing house presents new opportunities for the firm, while adding Euronext still owns more than 11% of LCH.

Euronext, which operates stock and derivatives exchanges in various European cities including Paris and Amsterdam, uses exclusively LCH SA, the Paris-based half of LCH, to clear its trades.

The opportunity to switch clearers has been presented by Euronext’s acquisition of Borsa Italiana, including its clearing house, from the LSE Group for €4.4 billion (£3.2 billion) in late April.

Boujnah said at the time of the acquisition Euronext was considering opportunities for further growth but his focus was the integration of Borsa Italiana.

“I don’t think there is anything more important we can do to create value for shareholders than doing that for the next 18 months, but we are going to remain a growth project in many respects,” the Euronext chief said in April.

The comments came as Euronext reported on Thursday revenues up 56% or €118 million to €328.8 million in the three months to the end of June, partly driven by the inclusion for the first time of revenues from Borsa Italiana companies.

The inclusion in the Euronext results of the Borsa Italiana bond trading platform MTS earnings, boosted the group’s fixed income revenue to €17.3 million in the second quarter from €0.6 million in the same period last year.