PLUS Markets Group Plc has signed a non-binding heads of term agreement with a third party, believed to Project Turquoise that would lead to a reverse takeover.
Project Turquoise is a group set up by seven leading investment banks who account for half of all European share trading, including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse.
The announcement comes after PLUS was recently granted Recognised Investment Exchange ("RIE") status by the Financial Services Authority ("FSA"). PLUS was able to demonstrate to the FSA that it can satisfy the high regulatory standards required to become an RIE, which gives PLUS the same rights and privileges as other recognised exchanges in the UK and Europe.
PLUS's recently acquired RIE status, and the proposed merger with Project Turquoise will only improve the market's status and reputation and will strengthen its challenge of becoming a major competitor to the LSE and AIM; as PLUS looks to attract small-medium cap companies/stocks, whilst Turquoise is out to attract the larger ones.
The proposed merger comes at an exciting time for PLUS as it begins to implement its new OMX trading platform on 1 November 2007, allowing customers to trade 7,200 European stocks, including all the FTSE 350, by taking advantage of the introduction of the new EU rules to promote competition under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive ("MiFID").
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