Euronext NV will pay a special dividend to shareholders if it does not find "financially attractive" acquisition opportunities under its current strategy that runs until the end of 2019, CEO and Chairman Stéphane Boujnah said Nov. 12.

At the launch of its Agility for Growth strategy in May 2016, the Netherlands-based exchange group said it would target "disciplined" bolt-on acquisitions to accelerate profit growth by the end of 2019 and would "carefully assess any potential opportunity resulting in a transformational transaction."

Euronext's ambition is to deploy capital "to grow the company significantly" and to do that within the current plan, Boujnah told analysts at a third-quarter earnings presentation. "This plan ends at the end of 2019, so we still have a full year to make significant acquisitions," he said.

Acquisition-related costs weighed on net income, although the group booked a 31.6% year-over-year increase to €50.5 million. Adjusted for higher depreciation and amortization, the bulk of which was related to new acquisitions, Euronext booked net income of €59.3 million for the third quarter.

Nevertheless, newly integrated units contributed to higher revenues in their respective segments over the period. Among others, Euronext's strategy aims to deliver €70 million in additional revenue at an average annual growth rate of 2% by the end of 2019. The exchange group has earmarked an overall amount of between €100 million and €150 million for development costs and bolt-on acquisitions.

So far in 2018, Euronext has completed two smaller transactions, including the acquisition of U.S.-based foreign exchange spot market operator Fastmatch Inc. in August and the purchase of The Irish Stock Exchange Plc in March.

Euronext was also said to be the lead bidder for MarkitSERV LLC, the derivatives processing unit of U.K.-based information provider IHS Markit Ltd., in late August. IHS CEO Lance Uggla, in a interview with The Trade Sept. 26, cited a disagreement on pricing as the reason for the failed disposal. He did not disclose the names of the bidders.

When asked about Euronext's role in the bidding, Boujnah declined to "comment on market rumors."

"The general principle which is not specific to any transaction remains the same," CFO Giorgio Modica said. "Our return on invested capital in terms of [acquisition] targets is always between 8% and 9% so you should not expect pricing of any asset that significantly moves away from that interval," he said.

At the time of the bidding, Euronext and IHS were reportedly negotiating an offer of more than $1 billion for MarkitSERV.

Euronext paid a dividend of €1.73 per share for 2017, some 22% higher than €1.42 paid out for 2016.