John McCrank

NEW YORK (Reuters), Cboe Global Markets (NYSE 🙂 Monday announced that it has agreed to acquire Canadian stock exchange operator Aequitas innovations Inc for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition expands its North American reach in the latest string of recent acquisitions.

The COVID-19 era saw trading levels rise and remain high, which has been good for exchange operators such as Cboe. They are the third largest U.S. stock market operator in terms of volume.

Cboe will have a registered securities exchange in Canada with the NEO transaction closing in the first quarter of 2022 subject to regulatory approval. It also has MATCHNow as an alternative trading platform, giving it greater operational efficiencies through scale.

They together account for 16.5% of Canada’s equities markets and they will have a better chance of competing against TMX Group (Toronto Stock Exchange).

Ed Tilly, Cboe chief executive officer, said, “Adding NEO better to the Cboe Network allows us to make a first-class Canadian equities offer, bolstering global markets in North America Europe and Asia Pacific and moving us one step closer toward our vision of creating one of the most global derivatives and equity trading networks in the world.

Cboe announced that it has agreed to purchase cryptocurrency trading platform Eris Digital Holdings, (ErisX), a spot- and derivatives trading exchange for digital assets. It also stated it was a limited shareholder in Trading Technologies International’s planned acquisition. Cboe said it would launch a U.S. Treasuries trading portal.

NEO provides market data, listing, and marketing services. NEO Connect offers a distribution platform that supports mutual funds, private fund, and corporate bonds.

Cboe is based in Chicago and offers products and trading platforms for equities, derivatives, and foreign exchange throughout North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.