[ I N T E R V I E W
|
S T É P H A N E
B O U J N A H ]
something very operational and
concrete. We have created a joint
venture called Liquidshare with
BNP Paribas, Société Générale,
Euroclear and others across Eu-
rope, to develop blockchain driven
post-trade solutions for small and
medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
This independent start-up compa-
ny has management, equity, P&L
plans and we’ll see whether the in-
vestment we made in an operating
blockchain technology establishes
us competitively in the market.
HM: Can we expect this momentum
to continue in 2018? What are the
main focuses for the business this
year?
SB: Absolutely. The financial
performance of 2017 has been very
strong, but what you will see is
that the numbers in 2017 do not
reflect yet what we created last
year in terms of value for 2018 and
2019. All of those acquisitions and
investments we have discussed
are going to yield and produce
revenues in 2018 and 2019. The
acquisition of the ISE will close
in March and we are expecting to
deliver €6 million of synergies to
transform the profile of the com-
pany out of the migration of the
current platform in the next three
years. The various other initiatives
with Morningstar and Algomi are
gathering client traction. We are
confident on the growth of those
various acquisitions and initiatives
next year. For 2018, Euronext Optiq
will reach another major milestone
with the cash platform going live
in the first half of the year. The
platform is already live for market
data, but the big migration for
replacement of our cash platform
will take place this year. This inno-
vation will also trigger the launch
of an MTF for ETFs, which will likely happen in the
second half of 2018.
MiFID II will begin to impact the industry in 2018. We
truly believe that MiFID II is beneficial to us in terms
of revenue model. There are still some loopholes that
need to be addressed by the regulator, in particular in
terms of the scope of the systematic internalisers (SIs)
and how the recent developments with SIs fit with the
initial objectives of MiFID II. MiFID I was all about
increasing competition, whereas MiFID II is all about
Issue 55 // TheTradeNews.com // 53