Euronext, the pan-European securities exchange, has almost halved its financing costs for the purchase of London-based derivatives market Liffe, after successfully completing its first bond issue, a benchmark £250m deal.

Having been saddled with an original loan repayment rate of 42 basis points above Libor - the interest rate London banks charge to lend to each other - Euronext used the bond to cut that to 23bp.