Intercontinental Exchange Launches Bond Financing in Preparation for $6 Billion Acquisition of MarketAxess

Odaily Planet Daily News: Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has launched a U.S. investment-grade bond offering, just two weeks after the company announced its approximately $6 billion acquisition of the electronic bond trading platform MarketAxess.

According to sources familiar with the matter, ICE's bond issuance is planned in up to five tranches, with maturities ranging from 3 to 10 years. The initial pricing guidance for the longest-dated bonds is approximately 1.15 percentage points above U.S. Treasury yields.

ICE previously announced that it would acquire MarketAxess Holdings for approximately $6 billion to further expand its footprint in the fixed-income trading market. MarketAxess is one of the world's leading electronic bond trading platforms, primarily serving institutional investors and providing trading services for fixed-income products such as corporate bonds and government bonds.

This acquisition is seen as a significant move by ICE to strengthen its bond market infrastructure. ICE currently owns the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), futures exchanges, clearing houses, and data services businesses, while MarketAxess's electronic bond trading network will help ICE further expand its fixed-income asset trading ecosystem.

Market participants noted that as bond trading becomes increasingly electronic, traditional exchange operators are competing for institutional investment market share through acquisitions of trading platforms and data companies. This financing also reflects the trend of major financial infrastructure companies supporting strategic mergers and acquisitions through the debt market. (Bloomberg)