TMX Group said Wednesday it will acquire Chicago-based Cboe Global Markets’ Canadian and Australian equities businesses for US$300 million. While analysts largely see the deal as beneficial to TMX, the owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange, it has also sparked concerns that Canada’s capital markets landscape could become less competitive.

In an interview with The Logic, TMX CEO John McKenzie pushed back on that premise, arguing that Canada remains “one of the most open markets in the world,” with 19 trading venues and no structural barriers to entry.

Competition concerns: The vast majority of Canadian equities are listed on the country’s main bourse, the TSX and the TSXV, which serves early-stage and emerging companies. As of March 31, the TSX had 2,149 listed issuers, compared with 1,524 for TSXV. Meanwhile, the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) counted 739 listings, while Cboe Canada hosts more than 400 securities, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Canadian depositary receipts and operating companies.

Toronto-based alternative trading system operator Tradelogiq’s CEO Laurence Rose, which was also exploring a bid for Cboe Canada, said the deal consolidates competition by reducing the number of exchange operators from four to three in Canada, but argued the impact is more nuanced when separating trading operations from listings. On the trading side, he noted there are still more than a dozen venues operated by multiple players, meaning the number of platforms to execute trades is unlikely to change materially. On the listings side, however, Rose said the transaction raises more serious concerns, as it reduces the number of options for companies and ETFs looking to go public.

Rose has previously championed greater competition in the market, saying last November that a Tradelogiq-Cboe combination would have resulted in three exchange competitors which he argued would be “a better outcome for the market.” 

McKenzie said the deal is not about reducing competition but making the system easier to use. The plan, he said, is to keep Cboe’s platforms and pricing in place while lowering the cost for market participants to access them. 

McKenzie has long maintained that competition within capital markets is a net positive to the country, saying in his first interview as CEO in 2021 that rivals like Cboe push TMX to improve. Pricing and innovation, he said, are driven largely by competition with U.S. exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. “The market for capital and trading is North America. It is not Canada,” he said.

Within Canada, McKenzie described venues such as the CSE and Tradelogiq as “meaningful players” with real market share. Asked whether TMX would maintain the Cboe’s often lower fees, he said TMX’s pricing is “just as competitive,” adding that fees will continue to be shaped primarily by competition with larger U.S. rivals.

Right deal, right time: Other than Tradelogiq, CSE reportedly also explored a bid for Cboe Canada in November, about a month after Cboe Global first announced plans to sell its Canadian and Australian operations. McKenzie said TMX had been engaged in acquisition talks with Cboe “from the very beginning” and that its ability to integrate both into its platform gave it an edge over rival bidders. 

Rose said the outcome was not surprising, noting Tradelogiq had only been interested in Cboe’s Canadian assets, not broader international operations. That likely made TMX more attractive from Cboe’s perspective, he said, as it meant dealing with a single buyer rather than multiple, even though the deal’s two parts are expected to close separately. 

TD Cowen analyst Graham Ryding said the deal will help strengthen TMX’s position in equity trading while reinforcing its global leadership in mining listings. Scotiabank analyst Phil Hardie, meanwhile, said the acquisition should deepen TMX’s domestic competitive position and could help narrow its valuation discount relative to the Nasdaq. 

The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals.The two divisions generated about $87 million in combined revenue and roughly $25 million in adjusted EBITDA in 2025. TMX has not disclosed how the US$300 million purchase price is split between the two assets, though McKenzie said the company will provide more detail upon closing. 

Rose said the deal is likely to face close scrutiny from the Competition Bureau. He added that approval is not necessarily all-or-nothing, noting regulators could allow parts of the transaction to proceed while requiring others to be divested or remain with their original owners.

Global play: The addition of Australian assets is meant to deepen cross-border ties in sectors like mining, where Canadian and Australian markets are closely linked. TMX already generates more than half its revenue outside Canada, and McKenzie said the acquisition will expand both its domestic and international footprint. He framed the broader strategy as one of scale: building “national champions” capable of competing globally for capital.

Beyond consolidation, TMX is positioning the deal as a way to improve capital access—particularly for smaller issuers. 

For a small company to go public, “the challenge often is around getting liquidity, getting visibility, and the cost of doing that,” he said. “Nothing in what we’re doing today makes that harder—if anything, it makes it easier.”