Germany's Deutsche Börse is teaming with SWX Group to establish a joint European exchange for structured products that will start trading in January.
In a statement the two exchange operators say as of 1 January 2007 they will will combine their trading activities in structured products in a jointly owned subsidiary dubbed 'Alex', which will focus exclusively on structured products.
Initially Alex will be the parent of a new exchange in Switzerland into which SWX will spin-off its existing business in warrants and structured products. At the same time Alex will become 'co-parent' of the warrants and certificate trading business on the Frankfurt Exchange, giving it a link to European participants.
Trading on the Swiss-based exchange will initially be conducted via SWX's Quotematch system. In the German market, the Xetra trading platform will come into play in early 2008, says Deutsche Börse.
The Alex holding company will be based in Luxembourg. The management board of the new unit will comprise of SWX's head of marketing and sales Marc Zahn who beomces CEO of Alex. Michael Jung who was senior project manager at Deutsche Börse becomes CFO and COO of the new exchange.
The Alex exchange is the latest example of collaboration between Deutsche Börse and SWX. The two groups already operate the Eurex futures and options exchange and STOXX, Europe's biggest provider of securities market indices.