Amex CEO open to sale of trading floor

By Joseph A. Giannone

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As more securities trading shifts from floor brokers to electronic systems, the American Stock Exchange is open to selling its valuable trading floor and headquarters property in lower Manhattan, Chief Executive Neal Wolkoff told Reuters on Monday.

Speaking at the Reuters Exchanges and Trading Summit in New York, Wolkoff cautioned that the exchange's trading floor and headquarters on Manhattan's Trinity Place are not up for sale, but it is mulling its options for the future.

"It's something we have as a possibility. We think about it from the cost perspective," Wolkoff said, adding he recognizes that electronic trading is replacing more business that used to flow through trading floors.

"It does require a little more planning than we've put in so far, but certainly in our future I would not at all rule it out," Wolkoff said. "It's just something we will plan for and we'll do in the context of the market structure we think works best."

An exchange spokeswoman said the number of people working on the trading floor has slipped to about 550 from around 600 last year.

The member-owned stock and options exchange hired Morgan Stanley in January to advise it on converting into a public, for-profit marketplace. The move would bring it one step toward a potential "strategic future initiative," including a merger or initial public offering, the exchange has said.

One possibility fueled by these changes is the Amex selling its headquarters, which are within shouting distance of the World Trade Center site and Wall Street. In an era when a shrinking number of stock trades are handled by brokers and specialists, the Amex wouldn't need as much space.

Wolkoff observed that the exchange's property has soared in value in recent years as a scarcity of midtown Manhattan office space sends more buyers to the financial district, which is still rebuilding after the September 11, 2001, attacks.  Continued...