Tokyo Stock Exchange, operator of Japan’s biggest share-trading platform, will merge with the Osaka Securities Exchange, its domestic rival, creating Japan’s largest exchange group and bolstering the TSE’s position as the third largest in the world by market capitalisation of company listings.
The proposed combination, expected to be completed by January 2013, was described by the pair as “a step towards the revitalisation of the Japanese economy”. The combined value of stocks listed on the exchanges would be about $3,600bn, trailing transatlantic operators NYSE Euronext at $12,000bn and Nasdaq OMX Group at nearly $4,000bn, based on data at the end of October.
Japan’s two largest exchanges had come under pressure to consolidate as global rivals developed into venues offering both trading in equities and derivatives. The country, for long the undisputed largest and most liquid capital market in Asia, faces a long-term threat from China and its maturing exchanges.