On Wednesday, NYSE Euronext Inc. confirmed its plans of selling a prominent stake in its NYSE Amex options unit to seven Wall Street brokers.

Via a statement, the trans-Atlantic stock exchange operator specified that it has accepted, in principle, on a framework with BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Capital, Citadel Securities, Citi, Goldman Sachs, TD Ameritrade and UBS, in order to sell part of one of its two U. S. options exchanges.

The stock exchange operator said: "NYSE Euronext would remain the largest shareholder and manage the daily operations, which would have a separate board of directors and a CEO. The transaction should be completed by the end of 2009."

The basic aim of the deal is to further align the company's business interests with the interests of its customers.

The company did not inform about the financial terms.

It should be noted that NYSE Euronext also operates the Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon stock exchanges, along with European derivatives exchange; apart from its New York exchanges.