Universal Commodity Exchange-led consortium has shown interest in buying the promoter FTIL’s stake in crisis-hit MCX and proposes to merger both the bourses.
The UCX’s offer comes after commodity markets regulator FMC asked Financial Technologies India Ltd to reduce its stake in MCX from 26 per cent to 2 per cent or below. The MCX board on December 27 had advised FTIL to bring down its stake within one month.
According to sources, UCX-led consortium — which consists of private equity firms and financial institutions, has approached the Forward Markets Commission with a proposal to buy out FTIL stake and merge the two bourses.
However, sources said that any progress in the discussion would be subject to the Bombay High Court order, which is hearing a petition filed by FTIL and its chief Jignesh Shah contesting the FMC order declaring them unfit to run any exchange in the country.
In view of the Rs 5,500-crore payment crisis at NSEL, a sister concern of MCX, market experts feel that there is a need for consolidation in the commodity futures exchanges.
The consolidation is also seen as necessary against the backdrop of lower turnover at the recently launched national commodity bourses such as ICEX, ACE and UCX.
While MCX is the country’s largest commodity exchange, UCX got permission to launch the new exchange only last year.