Dealmaking costs hit earnings at Nasdaq
NASDAQ OMX Group yesterday reported a lower second-quarter profit, mainly due to acquisition costs related to the closing of two deals by the transatlantic exchange operator.
Net income attributable to Nasdaq totaled $88m (£57.5m), or 52 cents per diluted share, down from $93m, or 53 cents a diluted share, a year earlier.
Nasdaq closed a $390m deal to buy Thomson Reuters’ investor relations, public relations and multimedia services businesses, during the quarter.
It also completed a $750m deal to buy electronic Treasuries-trading platform eSpeed from BGC Partners.
Stripping out one-time charges related to the deals, Nasdaq earned 62 cents a share. That was a penny shy of what analysts had expected.
Net revenue rose eight per cent to $451m, ahead of analysts’ expectations of $441.4m.
The company said the increase in revenues was driven by acquisitions and organic growth in all of its business segments.
“While we are pleased with the broad-based performance across many of our businesses, we experienced unique variances in our cost structure, including financing costs of approximately $2.5m associated with pre-funding the eSpeed acquisition nearly a month prior to closing, and our organic investments,” said Lee Shavel, chief financial officer.