Today, we announce that Antonio Caroselli has been appointed as CEO of Gatelab, part of the Euronext group, as of Friday 1 April 2022.

 

Following the retirement from his position as CEO of Gatelab, we are pleased to announce that Ferdinando La Posta will remain a member of the Board of Directors of Gatelab.

 

Antonio Caroselli, the newly appointed CEO of Gatelab, said: "I am really glad and honored to hold the role of new CEO within the company of which I was co-founder together with Ferdinando La Posta, my long-term brotherly friend, to whom goes my deepest appreciation for his valuable job through the years, always carried out with the utmost commitment and professionalism.

At the same time, with renewed energies, I am ready to face the new challenges awaiting Gatelab within new technologies applied to the international financial markets. Ad maiora semper!"

Euronext presented the results of its new ESG questionnaire highlighting that issuers are on their way to ESG maturity, but need support in key areas.

In March 2022, Anthony Attia, Global Head of Primary Markets and Post Trade at Euronext, participated in a roundtable focused on ESG and European SMEs, as part of the seminar “Accelerating the ESG transition of SMEs in Europe”. The seminar was organised by the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), the Caisse des Dépôts (CDC) Group, Eurofi and the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

On this occasion, Anthony Attia presented the results of Euronext’s ESG self-assessment questionnaire. The free online tool was launched in September 2021, with the objective of helping companies, public or private, understand their level of ESG maturity and performance.  

The roundtable was moderated by Christophe Bourdillon, Managing Director of CDC Croissance. He was joined by Sylvie Goulard, Deputy Governor of the Banque de France, Aude Contamin, Responsible for European Small and Midcaps at CDC Croissance, and Luc Hendrickx, Member of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG).

 

Anthony Attia, Global Head of Primary Markets and Post Trade at Euronext, Aude Contamin, Responsible for European Small and Midcaps at CDC Croissance, Christophe Bourdillon, Managing Director of CDC Croissance, Sylvie Goulard, Deputy Governor of the Banque de France, Luc Hendrickx, Member of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), at the CESE on 10 March 2022.

Euronext stands at the crossroads between the thousands of investors that are connected to our platform, and the approximately 2,000 issuers listed on our seven markets. In the context of mounting regulatory obligations, driven by the implementation of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), ESG is at the centre of many of our daily interactions with investors and issuers active on our markets.

We strive to support our clients, and in particular our SMEs, in their ESG journey with a set of advisory tools designed to help them communicate effectively with their shareholders and navigate the complex European regulatory environment. Via our pre-IPO programmes TechShare and FamilyShare, we also support companies aspiring to go public with dedicated ESG modules, with a strong focus on governance.

Euronext also works closely on ESG with large-cap companies, especially with the launch of ESG versions of its benchmark national indices, all driven by strong investor demand. The CAC 40 ESG and MIB ESG were launched in 2021, and the AEX ESG and the OBX ESG this year.

Issuers are well aware of ESG challenges

114 public and private companies, including large-caps and SMEs from across Europe, took the survey between September 2021 and March 2022. 72% of the respondents are listed companies, of which close to half are SMEs (companies with market capitalisation of less than €1 billion). The results have been crucial in helping us better understand the needs of both listed and private companies, to offer them the best possible support.

Main takeaways are:

• Most companies are active on ESG but the majority admit that there is room for improvement in their ESG strategy. Only 11% of respondents consider themselves as “very advanced”

• The pressure from stakeholders is increasing: 96% of companies reported being challenged by at least one stakeholder on their sustainability strategy. Enquiries were most frequently from shareholders, investors and banks (60% of respondents), clients (35%) and employees (32%).

• All companies encounter the same key challenges: they highlighted a general lack of resources and difficulty in identifying the appropriate ESG criteria to be disclosed. The absence of dedicated tools for the collection of ESG data is also a significant issue.
  
  The lack of ESG tools and internal organisation resources affects SMEs particularly, since the survey found that over 40% of SME respondents do not yet publish completed ESG reporting surveys, and only 39% of respondents have a certified sustainability strategy – although this will become mandatory, for large-cap companies at least, under the upcoming CSRD Directive.

• Final ESG scores vary widely depending on the profile of companies: listed Large Caps obtain the best scores, with 30% ranked as “Advanced”, whereas this is the case for only 5% of SMEs. No non-listed companies obtain an “Advanced” score.

Finding support is key

Overall, the level of ESG maturity of European companies is progressing. However, many of them, particularly SMEs, struggle to implement the structural organisation and process changes required to meet new reporting and transparency obligations.

A lack of control, lack of data and difficulties in steering ESG performance can impact both a company’s valuation and its reputation, and can ultimately lead to a risk of divestment.

Today, there is a very strong desire among listed SMEs for further support in their ESG transition. This need will only increase in the coming years with the implementation of the SFRD and the CSRD, as all listed companies will need to be on the same footing in terms of ESG reporting.

With this in mind, all companies, but particularly SMEs, should already be organising themselves and putting in place dedicated ESG resources, whether internal or outsourced. This is where Euronext’s ESG Advisory offering can help, as it is designed to support issuers and companies considering a listing in meeting their ESG obligations.  

Euronext is also working on other types of support for issuers in their ESG trajectory, such as helping increase their visibility with investors. As part of our ‘Growth for Impact 2024’ strategic plan, Euronext is designing initiatives to help listed companies develop their ESG strategies to maturity, including the launch of an index dedicated to the climate transition for issuers who have committed to the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Take the self-assessment questionnaire

Find out more about Euronext’s ESG Advisory services

Find out more about Euronext’s “Growth for Impact 2024” strategic plan

 

Fabrizio Testa, Head of Fixed Income Trading at Euronext shares his views with The Desk on European fixed income and how the company plans to support the market with a harmonised offering and optimise trading workflow functionality.

What are the components of Euronext’s fixed income offering today?

Following the acquisition of Borsa Italiana, Euronext has reinforced its leadership position as a worldwide fixed income business. We want to strengthen Euronext’s position, by expanding the European footprint of MTS and by facilitating SMEs’ access to debt capital markets through the Borsa Italiana franchise. Euronext will broaden the offering to improve the end-to-end debt financing value chain.

MTS is the leading fixed income trading platform in Europe, number one in Europe for D2D European Government bonds trading, number one in Italian repo trading and number three in Europe for D2C European Government bonds trading. As part of its mission to finance the real economy, Euronext has also offered to the European Commission, subject to ongoing negotiations, its MTS platform as a platform for the secondary and transparent negotiation of bonds issued within the NextGenerationEU recovery programme.

Borsa Italiana has a strong franchise in the fixed income space, with the MTS, BondVision, MOT and Euro TLX platforms. Its markets have full vertical integration; listing, trading, clearing and settlement, with control of post trading via Euronext Clearing and Euronext Securities Milan. They cover Italian govies, European govies, corporate and emerging market names, in particular on TLX.

The Euronext legacy market has a retail fixed income trading system on the Continent with a single order book, a MiFID regulated market, trading credit and government bonds. Members and liquidity providers are mainly Tier 2 and Tier 3 firms, prevalently from Euronext countries. Bonds traded are issued by local issuers based in Euronext countries. It’s a cleared model, via LCH SA and the settlement is performed through Euroclear, National Bank of Belgium and Euronext Securities Porto.

In Oslo we manage a regulated market and a non-regulated platform called Nordic ABM, with members reporting institutional sizes. The core activity of our Oslo market is OBOE reporting of OTC trades by local members, with bilateral settlement, so very different but complementary models.

Could you give more detail on plans for aggregating or harmonising the offerings that you have today?

From a technical standpoint, we have started to work on the migration of MOT, ExtraMOT and TLX infrastructure, as they will be integrated into Euronext’s proprietary Optiq trading platform. Our customers will have a single access point to all these services. The Euronext legacy fixed income market was created as a copy of the equity market, whereas MOT and TLX have a number of functional features that are very specific to fixed income markets. This adds value for all members because features integrated from MOT and TLX will also benefit the Euronext model.

The second level is the model. Today we have multiple pools of liquidity, fees, and liquidity provision schemes and member roles in the market. We need to evolve the existing model with the objective of promoting cross-membership and developing execution and liquidity provision on the markets.

Now that we have Euronext Clearing within the group, our objective is to further integrate the post-trade process vertically to the benefit of members and to facilitate cross-membership, especially considering how critical post trade is to fixed income markets.

And MTS has a different plan?

MTS has a different infrastructure from a technical point of view and remains in a more independent position but that shouldn’t stop us from seeking a solution that aims to integrate our service to the customer. We need simplification, offering scalable, more cost-efficient solutions.

When we talk about the integration on the platform does that mean a single interface or more fundamental integration behind the scenes?

Members should get access to larger pools of liquidity, especially if they choose to be cross-members of Euronext and Borsa markets. Bonds will remain listed on each local market. The trading workflows will be identical because this is included in the Optiq integration, but fundamental integration will depend on implementing more consistency and ease of access across the portfolio services offered by the Euronext Group.

In post trade, we want a solution that allows customers to decide effortlessly which kind of set-up they want. In fixed income the real cost remains in post trade. The Italian model is fully integrated and fully automatic with Euronext Securities Milan (former Monte Titoli), Euroclear and Clearstream. The goal is to open the door to a solution that permits the Euronext legacy market to have the same facility so customers can trade and execute in different pools of liquidity, while having the same technical infrastructure. At the same time, we want to leverage our strengthened settlement footprint. Euronext Securities, our CSD network, registers and settles more than €4 trillion of bonds across Europe. We believe there is an opportunity for market participants in the bond market to leverage more intensively Target2-Securities, the ECB settlement platform, and Euronext Securities provides a very efficient gateway to it.

What material effect will all this have on users and members?

We want to keep our direct members and consistently admit new ones because there is value in a market with a broader and more diverse membership base. With the aggregation of European firms across the sell side and buy side it is important that we offer solutions to support local brokers to stay in the market and provide liquidity. We have a very open, interactive relationship with liquidity providers to help us understand which products are useful to put on our platform. It is fundamental to support more securities listings but also to create a secondary market.

In the past Euronext was asked by members to dual-list bonds that were primarily listed on other European stock exchanges such as the BME. Regulation on regulated markets prevented that. But now that we have a multilateral trading facility (MTF), TLX, in the group, if a member wants to trade a bond listed in Spain or Germany, we will be able to do this very easily. If we manage to develop cross-membership, customers could see a significant increase in available counterparties and unlock powerful network effects to their benefit, triggering additional flows from new liquidity providers that today are active on only one market.

How will your future model support the different elements of a trade’s workflow?

As an aggregator of different pools of liquidity, traders have a choice in terms of product trading platform, and post-trade solution. The idea will be to automatically scan the different pools of liquidity the group offers and respond with an execution almost instantaneously. Functionality tailored to specific users, increasing choice in workflow, is also high on the agenda.

The Desk.com 

The Harmonised Rules in Euronext Growth Rule Book Part I for the Euronext Growth markets have been amended to reflect the new regime on Euronext Growth Dublin. The aim has been to introduce a reasonably consistent regime across the Euronext Growth markets by streamlining and aligning the existing rules with those of the other Euronext jurisdictions and expanding the advisory regime to enable international issuers and advisors to connect to the Irish market. This has resulted in some minor changes to the Euronext Growth Harmonised Rules as described below:

Oslo Børs has in connection with the said amendments also made a general review of the Norwegian version of the Euronext Growth Rule Book Part I with regard to language and translation. This has resulted in minor amendments.

The changes to the Euronext Growth Rule Book I are not yet resolved. The changes are expected to enter into force on 1 April 2022. The updated rule book in both Norwegian and English is available on Euronext’s websites.

From the first 17th century marketplace to providing tomorrow's sustainable growth products, Euronext has been financing the real economy for over 400 years.

Over 20 years ago, Euronext’s founding fathers embraced the concept of creating a European capital markets union. They saw the harmonisation of the European Union’s financial markets as an opportunity to build something unique: a pan-European market infrastructure that would provide local businesses and investor communities with unrivalled access to capital and liquidity.

The first step on the journey began by uniting three exchanges with deep historical roots and locations at the heart of the European financial marketplace.

Creating the first cross-border exchange

On 22 September 2000, the exchanges of Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris combined to create Euronext, the first genuinely cross-border exchange in Europe. Euronext combined the continental exchanges into a unique federal model with unified rules and a Single Order Book, operating on the same electronic trading platform and cleared by LCH S.A. CCP. Registered in Amsterdam with its headquarters in Paris, the fledgling company expanded rapidly, going public in 2001. It acquired the London-based derivatives market, LIFFE, shortly thereafter and the Lisbon Stock Exchange, including central securities depository Interbolsa, in 2002.

On this foundation, Euronext’s creators wanted to design an organisation that incorporated the individual strengths and assets of each market, while retaining the deep, well-established links the individual exchanges had with local companies, investors, intermediaries and regulators. At the same time, by joining Euronext, the exchanges could offer local investors a gateway to international financial markets, and open up their local markets to international investors.

 

Did you know? The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is considered the first “modern” Stock Exchange in the world. It was created early in the 17^th century by the Dutch East India Company.

From European roots to global ambition

In 2007, Euronext merged with the New York Stock Exchange to form NYSE Euronext. The newly-formed company continued to grow, moving all its European exchanges to the Universal Trading Platform (UTP) technology.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) took over NYSE Euronext in 2013. A key element of the transaction was to carve out NYSE Euronext’s continental European exchanges into a stand-alone entity. Thus in 2014, ICE launched an initial public offering (IPO) of Euronext, which once again became an independent company, Euronext N.V.

The IPO marked the beginning of a new era of expansion, where Euronext would move beyond exchanges to build the foundation of a European market infrastructure. Under the leadership of Stéphane Boujnah, CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext, the Group began a transformational journey with two key drivers: welcoming additional European market infrastructures to strengthen the historical Euronext federal model, and diversifying into new asset classes with business innovation and value-driven acquisitions. In 2015, Euronext created a Corporate Services franchise for issuers and private companies, and in 2017 it entered the spot FX business with the acquisition of FastMatch (now Euronext FX).

The Group made its first major new expansion into Europe in 2018 with the acquisition of the Irish Stock Exchange, and consequently acquired Oslo Børs VPS in 2019, in line with its aim of building strong capital markets in Europe by bringing together historic marketplaces. With these new acquisitions, Euronext became the leading debt listing venue globally with more than 52,000 total bonds listed, and expanded into the Nordic region for the first time while boosting its central securities depository (CSD) activity. This was strengthened in 2020 by the acquisition of VP Securities, the Danish CSD. Also in 2020, Euronext entered the power market by acquiring a majority stake in Nord Pool, Europe’s leading power trading infrastructure. Nord Pool operates in the Nordic region, the Baltics and Central and Western Europe, and supports power trading in 16 countries.

2021 was a pivotal year for Euronext. The Group acquired the Borsa Italiana Stock Exchange along with central securities depository Monte Titoli (Euronext Securities Milan), clearing house CC&G (Euronext Clearing), and leading electronic bond platform, MTS. Italy, which is the third-largest European economy and a G7 country, became the seventh country to join the Euronext federal model.

 

Did you know? Amsterdam was the first stock exchange in the world to admit a woman member, Henriëtte Deterding, in 1923, closely followed in 1925 by Oonah Keogh in Dublin.

Did you know? The Danish CSD, at that time named Værdipapircentralen, now Euronext Securities Copenhagen, was the first CSD in the world to succeed to paperless registration of all listed bonds in 1983.

Listing and trading: expanding into new asset classes

With the combination of seven exchanges, four CSDs and one clearing house, Euronext now supports the listing and trading of stocks and shares, as well as other financial instruments, and covers the entire capital markets value chain. It is now the leading cash trading venue in Europe and handles 25% of shares traded in the European region. Euronext also operates one of the leading structured products trading venues in Europe, and is the leading exchange globally for listing bonds and investment funds. The company also offers trading in financial and commodity derivatives, including a range of derivatives instruments on Euronext and European underlyings, and index futures and options on our benchmark indices such as the CAC 40^® and AEX^®. Euronext’s flagship milling wheat contracts and rapeseed commodity contracts continue to be included in recognised commodity benchmarks, such as the S&P World Commodity Index and Rogers International Commodity indices.

 

Did you know? Euronext is the leading equity listing venue in Europe with c.2,000 issuers representing €6.9 trillion of aggregated market capitalisation at end December 2021.

 

Did you know? In 2021, close to €1 in every €4 of equity capital markets funding for European firms was raised on a Euronext market.

A proprietary trading platform: creating a single liquidity pool

At the backbone of our pan-European infrastructure is our state-of-the-art proprietary trading platform, Optiq^®, launched in 2017. This single trading platform connects all of our trading venues, providing a Single Order Book and a harmonised regulatory framework^[1]. Our Single Order Book enables investors to trade, clear and settle in a uniform way throughout various jurisdictions. And through Optiq, investors have access to the largest financing liquidity pool in Europe and a unique entry point to all Euronext’s securities and products.

Supporting the entire listing and issuing value chain

Another vital aspect of creating a pan-European market infrastructure is supporting companies in listing and issuing equity and debt finance on our markets. Euronext does this by working with them through every phase of their listing journey. For example, in 2017, as part of the Euronext Corporate Services expansion, Euronext acquired Company Webcast and a 60% share in the iBabs board portal platform in 2017, allowing it to offer companies virtual investor services solutions. And in 2018, Euronext’s corporate and investor services offering was strengthened further through the acquisitions of InsiderLog and Commcise.

 

Did you know? Euronext Corporate Services serves over 4,000 clients in 25 countries, spanning listed and private companies, as well as public sector entities.

Offering post-trade and settlement services

In 2020 and 2021, Euronext broadened its post-trade services offering with the acquisition of VP Securities (now Euronext Securities Copenhagen) and Monte Titoli (now Euronext Securities Milan). Together with the previously acquired central securities depositories (CSDs) in Portugal (2002) and Norway (2019), these companies form the foundation for a pan-European CSD network that provides clearing, settlement and custody services to issuers across Europe, as well as ancillary services that facilitate market participants’ operations. With CC&G (now Euronext Clearing), a multi-asset clearing house, Euronext can now offer services covering the complete post-trade value chain and aims to provide a harmonised clearing framework across all of our venues. Our aim is to make Euronext Clearing the CCP of choice for Euronext cash equity and listed derivatives markets, offering our clients harmonised and simplified access.

Empowering sustainable growth

Euronext’s unique federal model places us at the intersection of local economies and global markets, connecting buyers and sellers on our trading venues. In this key role, Euronext has a responsibility to the whole finance community to facilitate the transition to a more sustainable economy in each of the countries where we operate. Early in our history, Euronext lived up to this responsibility by making it easier for investors to locate and invest in projects and companies working to finance the transition to a blue and green economy. For example, in 2008, Euronext was the first exchange to launch a pan-European index focusing on CO2 emissions, the Low Carbon 100. It is the oldest and most successful low-carbon index. Since that time, Euronext has created over 70+ ESG indices, and issued over 900 sustainable bonds and over 400 ESG-related ETFs.

 

Did you know? Euronext issued over €298 billion in ESG bonds in 2021.

Helping ambitious companies raise capital

Europe has emerged as a centre for innovation and has a fast-growing tech sector. This growth has also increased the funding needs of companies looking to scale their business globally. As a part of our mission to facilitate the financing of the real economy, Euronext has supported this fast-growing sector by helping companies meet their funding needs and gain a higher profile among international investors. For example, in 2015 Euronext launched TechShare, a unique pan-European programme for ambitious Tech entrepreneurs on their road to an IPO. TechShare has since grown into an extensive network of Tech companies and financial partners, becoming one of the largest tech financing communities across Europe with a presence in over 10 countries. In 2022, Euronext is also launching Tech Leaders, a segment dedicated to highlighting the visibility and attractiveness of high-growth listed Tech companies among international investors. This segment includes a suite of services to support these companies along their financial journey.

 

Did you know? Euronext is Europe’s leading venue for Technology companies, with over 750 issuers listed on its markets across clean technologies, life sciences, TMT, bio-technologies, medical technologies, and other sectors.

Future prospects: the next chapter of our story

From the trading of the first corporate shares in Amsterdam back in 1607 to providing tomorrow’s sustainable growth products, Euronext has a long history of financing the real economy. Over the past 20 years, Euronext has transformed from an exchange into a market infrastructure covering the full value chain of financial markets, and connecting local markets with global economies. The journey, however, is just beginning. For example, financing the transition to a blue and green economy will require significant investments from public and private institutions. Euronext will continue to drive those investment efforts by offering a full suite of ESG products, including creating climate and ESG versions of its blue-chip indices in all our regulated markets. Euronext is also playing its part in advancing the ESG agenda by moving its core Data Centre to Italy, shifting to a green facility powered 100% by renewable energy sources. This migration sets the standard for the industry and provides Euronext’s clients with concrete tools to improve their own carbon footprint. And Euronext will continue to form the backbone of a Capital Markets Union by furthering harmonisation across markets and borders. It has been an exciting journey, and the Group looks forward to what comes next, as it continues to shape capital markets for future generations.

 

^[1] Borsa Italiana cash & derivatives markets will migrate to Optiq in 2023 (targeted date, pending regulatory approval).