On Oct. 27, Intercontinental Exchange and TMX Group announced a complex transaction under which ICE will swap Trayport, a trading platform widely used in European power and gas markets, for two energyrelated businesses owned by TMX plus £350 million ($459 million) in cash. Those two assets are Natural Gas Exchange, a platform for trading North American energy products, and Shorcan Energy Brokers, which specializes in arranging trades in crude oil markets.
TMX said the deal will accelerate its global expansion and strengthen its data and analytics business. ICE said the deal will allow it to offer "further efficiencies and risk management solutions" in the North American physical energy markets. The deal also resolves a long-running dispute over Trayport. ICE bought Trayport for $650 million in November 2015, but the deal was rejected by the U.K. competition authority. ICE challenged the decision, but in July 2017 the competition authority reaffirmed the decision and ordered ICE to divest the company.
In related news, ICE announced on Oct. 24 an agreement to acquire BondPoint, a platform for trading corporate bonds, from Virtu for $400 million in cash. ICE said the acquisition would strengthen its efforts to capitalize on changes in the fixed income marketplace that are making it "an increasingly transparent, automated and data-driven marketplace." The same day, ICE announced that it had bought a 4.7% stake in Euroclear, Europe's largest settlement house for securities, for €275 million ($320 million). ICE said the deal will give it a seat on the board of Euroclear, and said it welcomed the opportunity to support Euroclear's role as "an independent provider" of market infrastructure services.
