The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the world's largest energy market, is exploring a sale for about $14.3 billion, a news agency reported on Friday, as exchanges world-wide hustle for the best merger partners.
Top NYMEX executives have met their counterparts at three suitors - NYSE Euronext, Deutsche Boerse AG and Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc (CME) - according to the report on the Web site of news agency Bloomberg.
Banks have not yet been hired to advise the company on the sale, the report said. A NYMEX response is not mentioned in the report, which cited two people involved in the discussions.
Buying NYMEX would allow a traditional cash equities exchange to add products such as energy derivatives to the trading mix it can offer its clients. It trades contracts including crude oil, heating oil and gasoline futures. Exchanges have for some years been consolidating internationally as they seek to cut costs and broaden their product range, in an effort to keep up with the expanding presence of their clients.
New York-based Nasdaq Stock Market Inc holds more than 30 percent of the London Stock Exchange after an unsuccessful take-over attempt, and last month agreed to buy Nordic exchange OMX for $3.7 billion as it expands beyond the United States.