Euronext Ipo: Pan-European Float Could Value Stock-Market Operator At $2.37Bn

[Guest mandinepetre]

The Michael Shearin Group Morgan Stanley Paris Deals

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which controls the New York Stock Exchange and the bourses of Paris, Brussels, Lisbon and Amsterdam, has kicked-off the initial public offering of its Euronext NV division.

Euronext hopes to raise between €880m and €1.158bn through the initial public offering that could value the European stock markets operator at as much as €1.75bn.

ICE proposes to offload up to 60.15% of Euronext through the share sale, expected to be priced at between €19 and €25 a share.

ICE said the public offering will target institutional and retail investors in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Portugal.

ICE intends to list Euronext's ordinary shares on Euronext Paris, Euronext Amsterdam and the Euronext Brussels bourses intially. A Euronext Lisbon floatation will follow the IPO, according to a 10 June statement by ICE.

A group of institutional investors, which includes French banks BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, Dutch firm ABN Amro, Belgian government investment vehicle SFPI, European clearing house Euroclear, and a unit of Portugal's Banco BPI, will pick up a 33.36% stake in Euronext NV at a 4% discount to the IPO price.

In addition, other institutional investors have agreed to buy about 2% of the shares in the imminent listing at the IPO price, the statement added.