Topic: How To Invest

Pat: What’s your take on the possibility of the TMX Group/LSE merger, and is TMX a buy? Also, what would the effect be on Canadian investors?

Article Excerpt

TMX Group Inc., $39.68, symbol X on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 74.3 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion), owns and operates Canada’s two national stock exchanges. The Toronto Stock Exchange lists senior equities and the TMX Venture Exchange lists junior equities. The company also owns the Montreal Exchange, which specializes in derivatives, and the NGX, an exchange for trading and clearing natural-gas and electricity contracts. As well, TMX Group owns Shorcan Brokers, a fixed-income inter-dealer broker, and The Equicom Group, an investor-relations company. In 2000, the Toronto Stock Exchange became the first exchange in North America to become a for-profit corporation (known as TSX Inc.). In 2001, TSX bought the Vancouver Stock Exchange. The TSX Group first sold shares to the public at $9 (adjusted for a two-for-one split), and began trading on Toronto in November 2002. In May 2008, the TSX Group paid $1.25 billion for Montreal Exchange Inc. As part of the deal, the TSX Group changed its name to the TMX…