{"text":[[{"start":10.25,"text":"For a family holiday in Greece this summer, Stéphane Boujnah packed several chunky books about France’s economic changes — fitting reading for a man who has spent more than a decade developing Europe’s stock markets from Paris."}],[{"start":23.45,"text":"Since becoming chief executive of Euronext in 2015, Boujnah has turned it into Europe’s biggest operator of stock exchanges through relentless dealmaking and encouraging more European businesses to list locally rather than in the US. He is a big believer in the need for strong domestic capital markets, saying these are more important than ever as Donald Trump “wants Europe weak”."}],[{"start":46.3,"text":"In the US, companies “don’t know what the cost of talented labour is going to be because of the rules on immigration, you don’t know what is going to be the impact of the rule of law weakening, you don’t know what the level of corruption is between the entourage of the ruler and the ruler”, he says. In this context, “Europe remains much more predictable”."}],[{"start":66.75,"text":"Boujnah, aged 62 and the longest-serving head of a European stock exchange, is due to step down in May 2027. He is preparing to hand over control as a decade-long effort to unify the bloc’s capital markets may be within reach. Ireland, which has the EU presidency, believes it can secure a deal by the end of the year that would centralise oversight and spur consolidation among European trading venues. “I’ve never been so confident that this [deal] will happen,” Boujnah says."}],[{"start":96.25,"text":"An agreement would be a significant moment for European markets as they battle to compete with the US and China. Europe is rich in savings but has historically had a weaker investment culture than the US, meaning companies often turn to American investors for fundraising at perceived higher valuations. For Boujnah, it would validate his efforts to deepen European markets and probably boost trading volumes as he departs."}],[{"start":123.35,"text":"When Boujnah arrived at Euronext, the company was viewed as unattractive and hiring was tough. The business needed to rebuild after it was spun off in 2014 by US group Intercontinental Exchange, which had bought NYSE. “Fifty per cent of the market thought we were dead and 50 per cent wanted us to die,” he says. Boujnah turned to recruiting “corporate refugees” — people disillusioned with their companies."}],[{"start":149.7,"text":"“Nobody resigned from a good job to join my team. I just welcomed great people who had no other choice because they needed a job to feed their family, and that’s how we built the team,” he says in an interview at the company’s headquarters."}],[{"start":163.2,"text":"Boujnah obsessively chased acquisitions. A lawyer turned investment banker at Deutsche Bank and Santander, he snapped up the Athens, Dublin, Oslo and Milan stock exchanges, among others, and changed the company from what he describes as “dead wood” to a consistently profitable, growing business."}],[{"start":181.79999999999998,"text":"Euronext now competes with the London Stock Exchange Group for listings and regularly wins. Its annual revenue from listings climbed from €71mn in 2015 to €187mn in 2025, and from share trading rose from €197mn to €359mn."}],[{"start":203.49999999999997,"text":"But analysts say the focus on expansion has meant Euronext has been less emphatic than peers such as Deutsche Börse and the LSEG in embracing new technologies."}],[{"start":214.59999999999997,"text":"Blockchain is sweeping across financial services, and many exchanges are seeking to compete with crypto companies that offer 24/7 trading and a slew of new products. “Certainly they’re a bit more behind on those things,” says Ian White, an analyst at Autonomous Research."}],[{"start":230.79999999999995,"text":"Not all of Boujnah’s deals have been successful: he has long eyed Nasdaq’s Nordics exchanges but they have not been for sale, and talks to buy Allfunds collapsed, with the fund platform later acquired by Deutsche Börse. "}],[{"start":243.09999999999997,"text":"Euronext is still much smaller than Deutsche Börse and LSEG, which have stronger post-trade services and data businesses respectively. Euronext, which is more reliant on equity trading volumes and EU policies to boost capital markets, has grown to a market value of €15bn, compared with Deutsche’s €52bn and LSEG’s £42bn."}],[{"start":265.29999999999995,"text":"“He’s managed to get Euronext from a position where it was kind of sub-scale . . . and made it something that’s more integral to European capital markets and more diversified as well,” says White. He adds that Boujnah has completed “a series of low to medium-risk M&A transactions” while Deutsche Börse and LSEG’s dealmaking “has been more mixed”, with some acquisitions facing “issues around capital allocation and prolonged integration challenges”."}],[{"start":295.09999999999997,"text":"Euronext reported revenue of €544mn in the second quarter of this year, a 10 per cent increase compared with the same period last year at constant currencies. Pre-tax profits jumped 21 per cent. "}],[{"start":309.59999999999997,"text":"Boujnah says he is disciplined and “obsessed” with generating cash. He takes pride in “not being brainwashed by teams, by [the] metaverse, by Spacs . . . not being brainwashed by the cloud without looking at cost etc, is something that is very helpful”."}],[{"start":325.54999999999995,"text":"His training as a corporate lawyer exposed him to a “zero-bullshit environment”, in contrast to public companies, which can be “very heavy in terms of superficial comments”. "}],[{"start":336.74999999999994,"text":"“I can’t use Excel,” he admits. “I hope people won’t drop Euronext stocks when they hear this.” He decries “a sort of religious belief that the spreadsheet is going to deliver by magic a solution to your problem”, saying instead that “you need convictions, you need feelings and intuitions” to make effective decisions. "}],[{"start":357.6499999999999,"text":"“I don’t have any close friends in business,” he says, a point he believes has benefited his leadership style. “I’m not fascinated by the lifestyle of my peers, I’m not fascinated by the lifestyle of the clients. I’m just trying to be efficient and to deliver what the shareholders want me to deliver.”"}],[{"start":375.19999999999993,"text":"One of Boujnah’s biggest challenges landed early when, in 2016, the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse shook markets by preparing for a merger to create a European stock exchange powerhouse. Boujnah lobbied in Brussels against the deal, worried about the competitive threat. “There was no future for Euronext in the shade of this huge Godzilla company and I worked a lot to derail the merger,” he says. The deal was eventually blocked by the EU over competition concerns."}],[{"start":404.0999999999999,"text":"A vocal hater of Brexit, Boujnah has campaigned for other issues close to his heart. New rules after Britain left the EU meant EU children required a passport for school trips to the UK, which later posed difficulties for some of his daughter’s classmates. “When kids go with their teacher to London for two days, they create no security problem and no immigration problem.”"}],[{"start":427.2999999999999,"text":"He says he contacted British MPs, including Yvette Cooper while she was UK home secretary, to push the point. The UK government later axed the requirement after an outcry from French travel industry groups. "}],[{"start":440.5999999999999,"text":"Stepping down from Euronext was Boujnah’s decision. “It’s quote unquote comfortable,” he says, and he is ready for a new challenge. Making the move now is better than leaving it until his late sixties, with the prospect of non-executive roles the only option, he adds. "}],[{"start":456.6499999999999,"text":"He feels that, given the company is in good shape, “there is more benefit in selecting an internal successor” — but he will not be drawn on a name."}],[{"start":465.94999999999993,"text":"For his next role, working in French or EU politics or turning around a struggling venture appeals. “I’m clearly not interested in chairing the board of a museum or a concert philharmonic orchestra. I’m not interested in being on the board of an established mature or listed company,” he says. “I want to spend time with people who give me energy. I want to feel alive.” "}],[{"start":496.54999999999995,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787464112_7337.mp3"}