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Nybot for Sale?

Officials at the New York Board of Trade (Nybot) late last week acknowledged that they have been approached by several organizations for a possible acquisition. Nybot has fielded inquiries from domestic and international institutions "about the possibilities of some form the possibility of being acquired," according to a Nybot spokesperson. As a result, Nybot has entered into "discussions with some of the interested parties," though it could provide no other details about possible partners or terms of a deal. Those U.S. organizations rumored to be interested in Nybot include the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex). CME and ICE decline to comment, saying they do not respond to rumor or speculation. Nymex says it is "always investigating its strategic alternatives" but could also not comment specifically on a possible Nybot deal. Across the pond, Euronext was also named as a likely contender and officials there decline to comment. In May, Nybot voted to begin a demutualization process that will convert the member-owned, not-for-profit organization into a for-profit company (DWT, May 8). It was announced in January that the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was negotiating a deal with the Nybot whereby CBOT would host Nybot's automated transactions on its electronic trading platform. Neither side could set a hard date for when negotiations would be complete, but Patrick Gambaro, Nybot's executive vice president of operations, estimates that the system will be up and running sometime in the fourth quarter of this year (DWT, Jan. 30).

Fimat Live with TwoFour

Fimat Group, a subsidiary of the French Société Générale Securities Services, is live with TwoFour, a global position and risk management system for its foreign exchange (FX) and futures trading. The initial deployment, which lasted six weeks, according to TwoFour, took place at Fimat's Chicago offices. However, the banking group is planning further deployments for its London offices as well as in Asia before the end of the year. The deployment in the U.S. started this past May, with the system going into production in mid-June. For its London and Asian offices, the bank will use TwoFour for its currency trading desks to get real-time trade processing, position keeping and risk management.

Misys Open to Offers

Fiserv, an information management technology provider, is the latest vendor to confirm an interest for the banking systems vendor Misys. A Fiserv spokesperson declines to comment upon reports that it has approached JPMorgan Cazenove, the bank advising Misys on a possible sale. In the past few weeks, several companies and individuals have expressed an interest in acquiring Misys Banking Systems. A team of senior executives at Misys, led by Kevin Lomax, presented a possible proposal to buy Misys, while SunGard is also rumored to be interested. SunGard officials decline to comment. According to Misys, some of the interested parties have presented offers for parts of the company. To allow the suitors to present the best offers, Misys opened its books last month. Moreover, three former directors of Misys, Ross Graham, John Sussens and Mike O'Leary, have also proposed to take control of the company in order to prevent shareholders selling the business at a low price. In related news, Commerzbank has deployed the latest version of Misys Risk Vision, version 5.4, continuing a six-year-old deal with Misys Banking Systems. Commerzbank will use Misys Risk Vision to aggregate and analyze its local and global exposure to risk, and for its subsidiary Eurohypo to get a consolidated view of trading and investment banking actions.