Turquoise acquisition completes

David Lester has been appointed as Turquoise CEO

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has finalised its takeover of trading platform Turquoise and appointed its former chief information officer to lead the venture.

David Lester will take over as chief executive replacing Eli Lederman, who stepped down after a two-year tenure.

The announcement comes just over a week after the bourse announced it had appointed a new IT chief, Antoine Shagoury, while Lester would take responsibility for the integration of Turquoise and LSE’s own trading platform Baikal.

The news caught Turquoise chief technology officer Yann L’Huillier by surprise. The LSE did not comment on whether the CTO would remain part of its future technology plans.

"Working in partnership with a number of major global banking firms, we have a tremendous opportunity to offer an attractive range of highly relevant and competitively priced products and services across Europe,” said Lester.

"The European marketplace for trading securities has significant scope to become more efficient and to grow in the coming years. Turquoise's existing pan-European footprint is a strong proposition and together with the introduction of new trading technology, strong governance and a neutral structure, we believe we are well positioned to innovate and build market share, " he said.

Turquoise was originally set up by a consortium of nine founding banks as a rival to the LSE’s dominance in the markets, along with other independent trading platforms such as Bats and Chi-X.