After its share price soared more than 10% in a week, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has confirmed talks with other operators about "possible business combinations".
The exchange's share price rose from $30.35 last Monday to a peak of $33.91 this Monday, prompting a query that has forced a statement confirming "discussions with a small number of exchange groups regarding possible business combinations". None of the talks with the unnamed parties "have resulted in a proposal".
The Australian government recently stripped ASX of responsibility for supervising real-time trading on markets, effectively ending its monopoly. It is set to face competition from electronic trading platform operator Chi-X from next year, with other players expected to follow.
The bourse has already moved to defend its position by outlining plans slash its trading fees and embark on a technology revamp that will see the introduction of a system aimed at high frequency traders.