The exchanges industry has seen countless trans-Atlantic mergers in the past few years, from the New York Stock Exchange combining with Euronext, and Nasdaq buying up Nordic exchange operator OMX, to Deutsche Boerse’e Eurex snagging the International Securities Exchange.
But you are not likely to see CME Group, parent of the Chicago Merc and the world’s largest derivatives exchange, flirt with any European counterparts anytime soon, CME CEO Craig Donohue hinted at the Reuters Exchanges & Trading Summit on Monday.
Europe is too bureaucratic for his taste and some deals are better in theory than practice, Donohue said, speaking from Sao Paulo:
“From a vantage point of distance, I just think those are incredibly difficult deals to do– the multiplicity of regulators, labor laws– all create a management not free to maximize synergies or value shareholders. I’m not saying these are bad deals, but they are more difficult.”
In other words, no European shopping trips are in the offing for the well traveled Donohue.
