Virt-x gains bring bid nearer

PAN-European stock exchange Virt-x has increased its chances of receiving a takeover bid from the London Stock Exchange with figures showing it broke even in September.

Virt-x, which accounts for the bulk of trading in Swiss blue-chip stocks, also revealed it had increased daily trades in non-Swiss shares by 38% to 2,146 since the end of September. But its average number of total daily trades also rose in line with increased activity on other European exchanges, meaning the portion of its business coming from non-Swiss trades remained at about 5%.

It made a £4.6m operating loss for the six months to 30 September, about £3m stemming from the last three months' trading on Tradepoint Europe. A further £1.3m was launch costs associated with Virt-x.