The chief executive officer and the chief listings officer of Alpha Group in Canada are stepping down at the end of October.
CEO Jos Schmitt, Chief Executive Officer, and Randee Pavalow, who handles listings and legal affairs, have "elected to leave the company" now that the alternative trading venue has been acquired by TMX Group, operators of the Montreal and Toronto exchanges.
The Alpha ATS started up in November 2008, as an alternative venue for trading in stocks listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and a related venture exchange. In April, when it became an exchange, Alpha claimed to handle close to 20 percent of equities trading in Canada.
Alpha became part of TMX Group in August, when TMX was acquired for approximately $4 billion by a group of Canadian banks, pension funds and insurance companies.
The Alpha Group and its equities operations now reports to Kevan Cowan, president of TSX Markets.
Cowan said replacements will be named for Schmitt and Pavalow by the time they depart.
TMX Group also acquired the Canadian Depository for Securities, in the process.
The Maple Group Acquisition Corp. pursued TMX Group last year, in an effort to break up a planned "merger of equals" between TMX and the London Stock Exchange.
Maple, now renamed TMX Group Ltd. has its own international expansion plans now and is believed to have talked with Direct Edge about taking a stake in that operator of two U.S. national exchanges.
Alpha Exchange was set up by nine leading Canadian financial institutions in 2007 to "reinvigorate trading in Canadian markets.”
Schmitt told Traders Magazine in February that becoming an exchange offered the new venue an opportunity to increase its market share and profits. In particular, he saw listings as a prime way to attract new business.
TSX controls about 96 percent of listings in Canada.
