By John McCrank
NEW YORK | Wed Mar 7, 2012 5:28pm EST
(Reuters) – Nasdaq OMX Group (NDAQ.O) said on Wednesday that while it does not believe mega-deals among global exchanges are dead, it is likely to keep its focus on small and mid-sized acquisitions.
In the past year, a number of large exchange takeovers have been stopped by regulators, including an $11 billion bid by Nasdaq, along with IntercontinentalExchange Inc (ICE.N), for NYSE Euronext (NYX.N).
“We don’t believe that mega-consolidation is dead,” Lee Shavel, chief financial officer of Nasdaq, said at the Citi 2012 Financial Services Conference.
But due to the regulatory environment, along with uncertainty from an economic and from a markets perspective, Nasdaq, which runs U.S. and Nordic markets, will not likely pursue any large deals in the near-term, he said.
“It’s something that we monitor, we look at, but our primary focus and the most likely M&A activity that you’ll see from us are going to be for small and mid-sized bolt-on acquisitions that we know we can integrate into the business and generate good returns from,” he said.
A number of firms have recently submitted bids for the London Metals Exchange, the world’s biggest marketplace for industrial metals, which analysts and industry sources have valued at 500 million to 1.5 billion pounds ($800 million-$2.4 billion).
The bidders include CME Group Inc, along with ICE, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd, and NYSE Euronext, sources have said.
Shavel did not comment on LME specifically.
(Reporting By John McCrank; Editing by Bernard Orr)
Jacqueline Tongko 