Brazil’s BM&F Bovespa posts second-quarter net profit
August 15th, 2008 | by admin |SAO PAULO, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Brazilian financial andcommodities exchange BM&F Bovespa said on Thursday it made a netprofit of 165.2 million reais ($101.5 million) in the secondquarter, its first earnings report as a merged company.
But operational costs caused net income to fall 6.1 percent ona pro forma basis from the year-ago period, when the two exchangeswere operating as separate entities.
Bovespa Holding (BOVH3.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which controls the Sao Paulo stockexchange, and the BM&F commodities and futures exchange (BMEF3.SA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)agreed to merge on March 25 in a cash and stock deal, creating theworld’s third-biggest financial exchange by market value.
Brazil’s antitrust authority approved the deal last month,allowing the two exchanges to start integrating their operationsand trading platforms. They are expected to merge their sharesinto a single stock later this month.
The merged entity created a one-stop shop where investors cantrade everything from stocks and currencies to futures on interestrates and soybeans. The exchange handles about 80 percent of stocktrades in Latin America and more than $67 billion in daily futuresderivatives.
($1=1.627 reais) (Reporting by Ana Nicolaci da Costa; Writing by Todd Benson;Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
