Stéphane Boujnah, general director of Euronext, never tires of quoting the former president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet, for whom “There are three successful European projects: the ECB, Airbus and Euronext”.
The operator of the stock exchanges in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Milan and Oslo has no shortage of numerical arguments to claim this success: its turnover has more than tripled in ten years, reaching 1.6 billion dinars in the last twelve . months, its stock market value is close to 11,000 million euros and the accumulated capitalization of the companies listed on its markets exceeds 6,300 million euros.
Its new three-year strategic plan, presented on Thursday, November 7, of course plans to continue its development, based in recent years on a strategy that combines a series of acquisitions from Norway to Italy and the gradual integration of the company’s different business lines. chain. of the stock markets.
But Boujnah also intends to benefit from the relaunch of the capital markets union project, renamed the “savings and investment union.”
A “unique prospect”
According to him, this union is a necessity to be able to mobilize the approximately 800 to 1 billion euros in investments that the European Union needs. according to successive reports by former Bank of France governor Christian Noyer, former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and former ECB president Mario Draghi. And prevent available European capital from being diverted from the continent.
“Today many big bosses say they want to invest a lot, but rather in the United States.”explains Boujnah. There is a threat of diverting industrial investments to the benefit of the United States. And with this movement, the fear grows that when the industry leaves, the angry parties will advance. »
Skeptical about the ability of the 27 Member States to advance together on these types of projects, the head of Euronext advocates initiatives that involve the most motivated countries first, even if that means incorporating others once the projects have been launched.
Without waiting for initiatives from governments or the European Commission, Euronext aims to set an example, with the first task being the simplification of capital raising and stock exchange listing procedures.
Therefore, the group will propose to the seven national supervisors of the markets in which it operates the creation of a “single prospectus”, intended to replace the many different information documents that are currently needed to launch this type of operations on a large European scale.
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