Royal and IGM back new stock exchange

Article Excerpt

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA $61(Toronto symbol RY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $85.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 4.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.rbc.com) is part of a consortium that plans to set up a new Canadian stock exchange. Other investors include pension funds and mutual fund company IGM Financial (see page 76). A new company called Aequitas Innovations Inc. will operate this exchange, which will be mainly aimed at institutional investors. It will also limit high-frequency computer trading, which can distort stock prices. Aequitas plans to begin operating in late 2014. IGM and Royal did not say how much they are contributing to this new business or how much they will own. Still, this new exchange aims to capture 20% of Canada’s stock-trading volumes over the next few years. Royal Bank is a buy. buy…