Tuesday, December 18, 2007

NYSE, Nymex line up to buy stake in MCX


The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) are awaiting policy guidelines on foreign direct investment (FDI) in commodity exchanges to pick up minority stake in Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX). The guidelines may be announced on Friday.MCX, the largest commodity futures bourse, is promoted by the Mumbai-based Financial Technologies (FTIL).

When contacted an MCX spokesperson said that the exchange has been long awaiting the government policy on foreign investments. While the transaction value under discussion is not clear, sources say that it could be in line with the previous stake sale. Last week, FTIL offloaded around 10% stake in MCX. ICICI, IL&FS and Kotak acquired 3.55%, 5%, 1% stakes, respectively, at an enterprise value of $1.1 billion (around Rs 4,400 crore). With this, FTIL's holding in MCX has come down to 37.5%.

MCX and National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), which run two leading national commodity bourses, have been pioneers in attracting foreign investors. While Fidelity had picked up 9% in MCX, Goldman Sachs had bought 8% in NCDEX. NCDEX had later sold 7% to Inter-Continental Exchange (ICE) as well.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

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