Richard Nesbitt, TSX Group Inc. CEO, spelled out his firm’s strategy for growth at the TSX annual meeting in Calgary yesterday.

The three-pronged strategy focuses on building the existing in base in Canada while cutting costs, expanding both vertically and horizontally into new products and asset classes, and growing the business in the U.S. market.

Nesbitt said that TSX Group sees opportunities to expand to expand its energy trading exchange, NGX, horizontally into natural gas and electricity, and vertically into clearing and settlement. Other sources of expansion are increased electronic fixed-income trading.

“This will take some time. But the underlying potential is unmistakable, and the rewards attractive,” Nesbitt said. “The recently announced S&P/TSX Canadian Bond Index will help exploit that potential by providing the basis for eventual new investment vehicles linked to that index.”

As for global expansion, he noted that China is an attractive source of new listings and, “India also represents a potential new source of business and we won’t ignore it either”. However the primary focus is on the U.S., where TSX Group is looking to sell more listings, trading products, and more data.

“We have people in place to do this work, dedicated to extending our reach beyond our domestic base into the world’s largest capital market, and one in which consolidation offers us opportunities,” he added, noting that one of its major challenges is that many big players in the U.S. simply don’t know what it has to offer.