Reading - New York Stock Exchange to float

New York Stock Exchange to float

David Teather, Thursday April 21, 2005

The Guardian

The New York Stock Exchange announced plans last night to become a publicly quoted company in one of the biggest upheavals in its 212-year history.

The exchange is merging with the electronic trading firm Archipelago Holdings. It will create a new firm called NYSE Group that will become a conventional for-profit organisation and spin off its regulatory arm into a not-for-profit entity.

The exchange's 1,366 "seat holders", its current owners, will get $400m ($210m) in cash and 70% of the shares in the new company.

The move will increase the volume of electronic trading on the exchange although the chief executive, John Thain, said the deal was "absolutely not" the end of the traditional floor trading on Wall Street.

The NYSE has been under increasing pressure from electronic exchanges including the technology-heavy Nasdaq market.

Confidence in the floor traders, known as specialists, has also been undermined by revelations that some were profiting illegally at their clients' expense.

Mr. Thain described the move as "an essential step to maintaining our global competitiveness and leadership".

The deal is subject to approval of the members and the securities and exchange commission, the US watchdog.

Archipelago, based in Chicago, trades both shares and options based on stock holdings. It handles about 25% of the trades in stocks listed on the Nasdaq but has made little impact on the NYSE, where more than 80% of listed stocks trade on the exchange floor.

The firm's chief executive, Jerry Putnam, will become co-chief operating officer and one of three co-presidents at the combined group.

Mr. Thain will remain as chief executive.

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