Although Asia comprises just 15% of the broker's global revenue today, Wessel Van Der Scheer, Newedge's Asia-Pacific chief executive, expects the region to contribute a bigger share in the future. "We have high hopes in Asia, we're still very bullish" he says. "We strongly believe China is going to be the market of tomorrow."
The new outfit is already set to move ahead of the competition in China thanks to Calyon Financial's existing deal with Citic East China. That agreement has carried through to the new entity and the joint venture will be up and running by March, in time to take advantage of China's new index futures.
Elsewhere in Asia the merger has helped Newedge to develop much broader coverage û of the eight Asian offices that Newedge now has, five are in cities that only one of the merger partners originally had a presence in.
Globally Newedge has a 12% market share in its core business of listed futures and options broking, which is roughly the same as the market share across Asia. Launching an IPO will give the business an acquisition currency that should help it to win a bigger share of the market.
"The multiples in the broking industry are pretty high so we don't want to have to pay cash," says Patrice Blanc, Newedge's chief executive. "The plan is to do a partial IPO. Both [Calyon and Societe Generale] will keep more than 50% [combined]."
As well as announcing its plans, Newedge also unveiled a new website and corporate brand this week, which includes a bamboo motif that should play well in Asia and a typically meaningless tag line: "The Pulse of Finance". It has also hired a new head of brand and communications from Nestle: Jean-Christophe Huertas.
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