Chi-X targets 25 pct of London-listed trading

By Olesya Dmitracova

LONDON (Reuters) - Alternative equities trading platform Chi-X Europe said on Tuesday it was on track to achieve 25 percent of the London market a year from now.

"I'll stick with 25 percent ... I am very confident," Chief Executive Peter Randall told the Reuters Global Exchange and Trading Summit.

The first live, pan-European multilateral equity trading facility aims to take on the three major European bourses, including the London Stock Exchange (LSE.L: Quote, Profile, Research), with its faster and cheaper trading engine.

It has so far gained 13 percent of FTSE blue-chip business.

The platform's recent growth signals it is well placed to realize its ambitions: in the first quarter of this year, turnover more than doubled on the previous three-month period to 74.26 billion euros ($115 billion).

"If someone else comes along with a cheaper system or a better system, it could disappear from us just as fast. We have to keep competing to keep it on our patch," Randall said.

Chi-X Europe, owned by Nomura Holdings' (8604.T: Quote, Profile, Research) broker agency Instinet, also expects to have 15 percent of Germany's DAX, Amsterdam's AEX and France's CAC 40 indexes.

Randall said the platform's "very scalable" technology could support rapid growth.  Continued...