U.S. exchange Bats Global Markets has received provisional clearance from the U.K. Competition Commission for its proposed $305 million acquisition of pan-European trading platform Chi-X Europe, The Wall Street Journal reports. The combined group, which will be known as Bats Chi-X Europe, intends to unveil a derivatives trading platform.
The transaction may be completed by the year-end if the commission gives final approval in the next few weeks. The ruling, set to be confirmed by December 2, can be extended by eight weeks. According to the provisional findings of the commission, which has been studying the merger since June, customers of both exchanges were capable of preventing the merged company from trying to raise trading fees or lower service quality.
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