The TRADE has learned that as of

However, it now looks as if State Street has returned to its previous position of #22 holder, with just 0.26%, and in fact has been a recent seller of the position, divesting a $1.6 billion holding in Q4 2021.  

Given the denials issued by State Street in response to the recent rumours around a potential takeover, Wednesday’s surprise filing threw up some questions from the industry – not least, around how any trade as large as that could have taken place without anyone noticing, given the current dearth of liquidity in the market.   

“How would they have got the trade done?” pointed out one trader, who requested to remain anonymous. “It couldn’t have been done in the marketplace, and there is no logical seller. It looks like it’s just a filing issue – or it could potentially be a transfer of stock onto State Street’s balance sheet.” 

It is worth noting that in the 8 June listing, the 7.5% stake was filed as taken by SSGA, the asset management arm, rather than the wider firm. State Street as a group is known better as a custodian, so it makes sense that its asset management arm might be the one to take an interest, if any takeover bid was indeed on the cards.  

However, State Street has conclusively rejected the possibility, stating: “State Street is not pursuing an acquisition of, or any other business combination with, Credit Suisse. There is no basis to the continuing market rumors. Although we have a long-standing company policy of not commenting on such speculation, we feel a response to these reports is now warranted in this instance, as we are in the midst of a pending acquisition of Brown Brothers Harriman Investor Services.”  

Harris Associates is currently the main stakeholder in Credit Suisse, with 5.17%, and is a recent buyer of the stock, while Qatar Investment Authority is the next biggest holder with 5.03% and US mutual fund giant Dodge & Cox comes third with 4.99%, according to Bloomberg data as of 9 June.  

In January David Herro, of lead shareholder Harris Associates, said that he was “hopeful” of the bank’s turnaround. However, he’s rather changed his tune since then, and on Thursday went on record claiming that he could be supportive of a takeover from the right buyer, at the right price. “[The bid] doesn’t surprise me at all given the low valuation of the business,” he told Financial News. “[I would] guess perhaps others may be interested as well.” 

In November last year Herro also spoke out about the possibility of Credit Suisse’s asset management arm tying up with another player, such as UBS Asset Management, although warned he wouldn’t entertain an offer “anywhere near” the current share price (then hovering around CHF9), claiming he’d want closer to CHF20 per share.  

The original Swiss blog that published the takeover report earlier this week suggested talks were in place at around CHF9 per share, a premium of around 30% on the current price, which would value Credit Suisse at around CHF25 billion. 

Although the Credit Suisse share price jumped almost 7% on the news of the potential merger, it fell back 5.09% yesterday to close at $6.52.

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Olivetree Financial is currently at the centre of merger talks, the TRADE can exclusively reveal.

One of the interested parties is said to be New York-based financial services firm StoneX. It is unclear whether negotiations will result in a deal, and whether it will be a full buyout, merger or a potential joint venture. 
 
Olivetree recently conducted a strategic review of its operations in the US, resulting in a number of job losses, according to a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is private.  
 
The broker is choosing to focus on European markets as this is where it sees more opportunity in the near term. It still employs a number of people in New York, the person added. 
 
An Olivetree spokesperson declined to comment. StoneX also declined to discuss the matter when contacted by The TRADE, beyond noting that the firm does not comment on “employee movement”.  

The number of independent brokerages in Europe has been falling in recent years following a wave of consolidation. TP ICAP, the world’s largest inter-dealer broker, acquired Louis Capital, an equities and fixed income specialist, in July 2020. In November of the same year, Makor Group announced that it had entered into a strategic alliance with rival Churchill Capital. 
 
A boom in deal-making has also seen firms adding headcount to teams that specialise in mergers and acquisitions. M&A in Europe reached a 14-year high in 2021 and deals involving European targets totalled $1.4 trillion, an increase of 46% over the previous year, according to data from Refinitiv. 
 
The surge in M&A activity worldwide has been fuelled in part by private equity funds and the growth of special purpose acquisition vehicles (SPACs), Refinitiv said. 
 
Olivetree recently added to its event driven team in London with two senior hires from BTIG, as reported by The TRADE. Greg Levett and David Abraham joined the broker in September 2021, while Tim Caulton also re-joined the firm in July. 
 
The firm also made a number of hires in the US around the same time, with the appointment of Richard Orlando and Robert Weibel, also event driven specialists. 
 
Event driven strategies seek to profit from corporate events, including merger and acquisitions, restructurings, and spin offs. 
 
StoneX, formerly known as INTL FCStone, describes itself as an institutional-grade financial services network. The company’s London-based subsidiary, StoneX Financial, joined the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and its pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF), Turquoise, as a member in May of last year, in a move designed to expand its offering in cross-border equities and boost its cross-asset capabilities.  

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However, the biggest and most surprising, news of the year dropped in September, when Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) tabled a £32 billion acquisition offer for London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). The offer was hastily rebuffed by LSEG, with chairman Don Robert expressing surprise and disappointment that the bid was made public just two days after it was received. Undeterred, HKEX vowed to persist with its acquisition strategy as tensions between the two parties mounted, with LSEG also making pointed comments about its ongoing partnership work with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The drama came to an end in October when HKEX chief executive, Charles Li, posted on his blog that the pursuit of LSEG had been called off having failed to secure the backing of LSEG’s shareholders. None of which may have come to pass if HKEX had simply seen The TRADE’s coverage of LSEG chief executive, David Schwimmer, talking down future cross-border mergers involving the group due to rise of nationalism and a negative focus on exchanges.

One of the year’s other big stories was intertwined within the LSEG/HKEX narrative, as in late July, the London venue confirmed that it was in discussions to acquire Refinitiv in a $27 billion deal that would create one of the largest data and trading powerhouses globally. At the start of August, the deal was done and LSEG announced that it expected to close the acquisition in 2020. Part of HKEX’s offer for LSEG was the stipulation that the deal for Refinitiv be abounded, which did not go down too well in Paternoster Square, and most likely played a not-insignificant role in how the story played out.

It has been a tough year for Deutsche Bank, to say the least. In March, rumours of a possible merger with Commerzbank became loud enough that the two institutions moved to confirm that discussions were ongoing, although the deal never materialised after talks collapsed in late April. However, it is the story of Deutsche Bank’s other struggles this year that have grabbed the headlines, with chief executive, Christian Sewing, warning shareholders of cutbacks and structural changes during its Annual General Investors meeting. The warning became reality in July, when Deutsche Bank unveiled its planned overhaul of the business, which included reducing its workforce by 18,000 and transitioning its US-based prime brokerage and electronic equities business to BNP Paribas. The German institution’s struggles have been beneficial to its peers on the sell-side, however, with Barclays announcing that it had gained around $20 billion in prime balances from Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas estimating revenue gains of around $400 million from the transition deal, which it expects to be finalised by summer next year. The newly slimmed down Deutsche Bank, which saw total headcount fall to below 90,000 for the first time in a decade in October, is progressing well with its transformational strategy, Sewing said in December, raising its investment bank revenue expectations due to its fixed income and currencies sales and trading operations.

Elsewhere this year, brokers are stepping up to the plate in the post-MiFID II landscape as banks struggle to keep pace in the algorithmic trading space, according to this year’s Algorithmic Trading Survey, published by The TRADE in April. Hopwever, there are always exceptions to the rule and this year Credit Suisse hailed the turnaround of its flagship algorithmic trading platform following a revamp, with revenue income of $359 million in its global markets division, a massive 141% increase year-on-year.

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While 2019 may not have lived up to the same levels of M&A activity witnessed in 2018, there has nonetheless been no drought of drama and deals being struck across the industry, most significantly in the exchange space, where tensions were raised and bids have flown across the globe, with varying degrees of success.

With a cast of players including London Stock Exchange Group and Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, Euronext and Nasdaq, Refinitiv and Liquidnet, The TRADE’s second (and still very unofficial) M&A awards runs the rule over the most noteworthy of this year’s M&A activity so far…

Biggest data deal & Biggest game-changer: London Stock Exchange & Refinitiv

Without a doubt the biggest M&A deal of the year and, quite possibly, one that will change the game for many market participants that do business with the London Stock Exchange Group in future: A combined LSEG-Refinitiv entity would create a data and trading powerhouse with few rivals that possess such scale.

Discussions between the two firms were announced in late July along with a £22 billion price tag for the former Finance & Risk division of Thomson Reuters. By the start of August the offer was officially confirmed and an agreement was in place for the deal to go through. LSEG chief executive David Schwimmer hailed the acquisition as “transformational” for the exchange and there were few in the markets that opposed that view; analysts agreed that this was a pure-data play, one that would boost the group’s revenues significantly and position the combined entity as a serious threat to Bloomberg’s dominance of the financial data world.

One analysis detailed that the deal would see the “$2.8 billion exchange become an $8.4 billion exchange/market data giant”, while LSEG would also gain significant footing in the fixed income and foreign exchange markets.

A knock-on of the deal also ended Deutsche Börse’s interest in acquiring Refinitiv’s FX trading platform, FXall; talks between the two firms had been confirmed in April, with a $3.5 billion price tag touted in the media, although the German exchange operator disputed the figure as “entirely unfounded”.

At the time of publication, the LSEG-Refinitiv had not been finalised and there will be some hurdles to clear before the union is complete. Regulators and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority are sure to be taking a very close look at how the combined entity plans to operate, and may require some of the business’s units to be clearly separated.

In mid-September, Schwimmer stated that the integration between the two organisations could take up to five years to complete, although he expected “to get most of those synergies within the first three years of closing the deal”.

Most optimistic offer: Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing & London Stock Exchange Group

Out of seemingly nowhere in mid-September came what could rightly be considered the most audacious acquisition offer of the year. Not only had Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEX) offered £20.45 a share in cash and 2.495 newly issued HKEX shares– representing a total valuation of £32 billion, far in excess of the fee mooted during the discussions between LSEG and Deutsche Borse three years ago.

But the valuation involved wasn’t the only issue LSEG had with it described as an unsolicited offer; HKEX publicly announced the bid just two days after its submission, LSEG cited a host of complexities that would arise should the offer be taken seriously. Top of the list was HKEX’s stipulation that should its offer be accepted, LSEG would have to terminate its own acquisition plans for data giant, Refinitiv.

The Chinese exchange group stated that it too had grand plans for future technology and data development, primarily a new digital trading platform. The UK exchange reiterated its commitment to the Refinitiv deal in its response as well as a preference to continue to focus on its direct connections to China through the Shanghai Stock Exchange, with which it operates the Stock Connect initiative, which went live in June.

Undeterred, HKEX chief executive, Charles Li, kept up the offensive and said that LSEG shareholders should have the opportunity to analyse, in detail, both its offer for LSEG and the Refinitiv transaction.

By signalling intent to engage directly with LSEG shareholders, rather than the board, the tension between both sides ratcheted up a notch – a fact which was evident when both Li and LSEG chief executive, David Schwimmer, gave back-to-back keynotes on the same morning during this year’s Sibos conference.

While the rest of the UK is mired in the Brexit saga, LSEG has continued to perform well across its different business lines and is betting big on data, an element that the asset management community is investing heavily in. As such, it was unsurprising when, on 8 October, Charles Li made a statement that HKEX would not be pursuing its offer for LSEG, saying that “the level of engagement from LSEG led us to conclude that the continued pursuit of a combination of the two businesses would not be in the best interests of our own shareholders.”

In response to HKEX’s withdrawal, LSEG issued a statement saying that it remains “committed to and continues to make good progress on its proposed acquisition of Refinitiv”. A predictable end to the year’s most audacious acquisition attempt.*

Most dramatic deal: Euronext & Oslo Børs

While the HKEX-LSEG offer could have taken the title for most dramatic deal this year given the scale of the institutions involved, this award goes to a deal that actually closed. At times it was hard to keep track of who was out-bidding who in this, the most protracted acquisition tussle of the year, as two exchange groups duked it out over a target with only a fraction of their combined daily trading volumes.

In a series of offers, counter-offers and very attention-seeking press releases, Oslo Børs eventually wound up under the ownership of Euronext in May, having courted both the pan-European exchange group and its US-based counterpart Nasdaq since the end of 2018 – somewhat reminiscent of last year’s winner in this category, the acquisition of Fidessa by ION International.

Euronext made the first move in this tussle when it increased its existing stake in the Norwegian exchange from 49.6% to 60%, a precursor to a full acquisition bid from Euronext, valued at NOK 6.24 billion (¤625m). For their part, Oslo Børs saw a good opportunity to attract a higher offer from elsewhere and invited interested parties to step forward to “find the optimal solution in the best interests both of shareholder value and of the functions of the group’s stock exchange and central securities depository activities in the Norwegian securities market.”

While Euronext aimed to increase its footprint in Europe by adding Norway as one of its hubs, Nasdaq sought instead to consolidate its already significant presence in the country by outbidding its rival with a £770 million offer.

Four months of back-and-forth ensued, with Nasdaq blinking first and allowing Euronext to complete the acquisition in mid-July. The two organisations, alongside London Stock Exchange, now represent the three main trading venue operators in the Scandinavian region and Euronext will have been well pleased to secure one of the few remaining independent exchanges in Europe and expanding its own infrastructure and capabilities at a time when scale is an important feature of any trading venue operator.

Notable mentions

While there was hardly much of a sustained spending spree by any one firm throughout the trading or FinTech markets, Liquidnet did complete a couple of interesting deals this year. First it acquired institutional research marketplace and aggregator RSRCHXchange in May, expanding its platform to provide its significant client base with access to global market research, an area that has been shaken up since the introduction of research unbundling under MiFID II in Europe, even in the American and Asian regions. Liquidnet followed that deal with the acquisition of natural language processing (NLP) specialist, Prattle, a month later. Having acquired NLP vendor OTAS Technologies in 2017, Liquidnet clearly views that factor of artificial intelligence technology as a lucrative growth area for its clients, and alongside its deal for RSRCHXchange, is targeting some of the most important market changes among the buy-side through its acquisitions.

Refinitiv has been in the thick of the M&A space in Q3 this year but also completed an acquisition of its own in June, adding a valuable link to its buy-side offering through the purchase of order management specialist (OMS), AlphaDesk. Terms of the deal were not made public, but the missing element of Refinitiv’s portfolio of tools for buy-side traders was filled by the addition of multi-asset and multi-currency OMS capabilities. As well as slotting neatly in with Refinitiv’s cloud-based approach, the OMS will be integrated with its existing REDI execution platform and flagship Eikon desktop, to form what Refinitiv calls its end-to-end offering.

Not to be left out of the exchange M&A merry-go-round this year, Deutsche Börse closed its acquisition of analytics firm Axioma in mid-September, to form the interestingly named new business division, Qontigo. The new intelligence division incorporates Axioma’s portfolio construction and risk analytics tools with the exchange operator’s indices STOXX and DAX, and aims to address what the German exchange operator views as key issues for the industry, covering the rise of passive investing and smart beta, new technology infrastructure for scale, and the shift towards customisation of services.

*This article has been updated from the published version in The TRADE Issue 61 to reflect subsequent developments.

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Having first made a £32 billion offer in mid-September that was emphatically rebuffed by LSEG, HKEX declared its intent to push forward with the deal by approaching LSEG shareholders, as tensions increased between the two exchange groups.

However, having failed to secure backing from LSEG stakeholders or convince that LSEG’s planned acquisition of data and technology giant Refinitiv would have lesser value than its proposal, HKEX has backed away from the deal.

“Today, disappointingly, we announced our decision not to proceed with a firm offer for London Stock Exchange Group,” HKEX chief executive, Charles Li, wrote in a blog post.

“We still believe the strategic rationale for the combination of our two businesses is compelling and would create a world-leading market infrastructure group.  However, despite a huge amount of work and discussions with a broad set of regulators and extensive shareholder discussions, the level of engagement from LSEG led us to conclude that the continued pursuit of a combination of the two businesses would not be in the best interests of our own shareholders.”

The possibility of HKEX pulling off one of the most significant exchange-related acquisitions of the modern era had been rated as marginal by industry analysts, particularly when compared with the benefits that the integration between Refinitiv and LSEG would offer in creating a technology and exchange powerhouse.

David Schwimmer, chief executive of LSEG, had made his opinions of the bid very clear during a keynote interview at this year’s Sibos conference, where he stated that “we view Shanghai as the financial centre in China.”

In response to HKEX’s withdrawal, LSEG issued a statement saying that it remains “committed to and continues to make good progress on its proposed acquisition of Refinitiv”, with regulatory approval processes underway and an extraordinary general meeting planned for November this year where shareholders will have the chance to approve the deal.

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First announced at the end of July, the deal sees the Neptune investment team and its 19 global, income, regional and emerging markets funds join Liontrust. The new Liontrust global equity team will be led by Neptune founder, Robin Geffen.

The former Neptune funds have all been rebranded as Liontrust and the Neptune Global Income Fund is now called the Liontrust Global Dividend Fund. Liontrust has stated that there will be “no change to the managers running the funds or the investment process used.”

The deal will see Liontrust’s assets under management grow from £2.8 billion to £17 billion and further expands its fund management scope in Asia, where it had previously not had a footprint in China.

“This is great for Liontrust and for the investment team at Neptune. We have been impressed by the quality of Robin and his team and they bring an excellent range of funds with strong long-term performance,” commented John Ions, chief executive of Liontrust.

“The range of funds managed by the Liontrust Global Equity team broadens our product range and will help us further our growth strategy. Liontrust has moved forward strongly over the last several years. We believe our business is well positioned to continue this growth with an excellent investment proposition and our continued focus on client service.”

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LSEG took just two days to turn down the bid from the Asian exchange group, adding that it was “very surprised and disappointed” that HKEX decided to publish its unsolicited proposal just two days after LSEG received it.

HKEX has now described itself as “disappointed” that LSEG “declined to properly engage” as it hoped to enter into a constructive dialogue with the board.

In a further twist to the saga, which only unfolded on 11 September, HKEX has now said it believes LSEG shareholders should have the opportunity to analyse in detail both transactions – referring to its own strategic plans and its proposal for LSEG to step away from £22 billion acquisition of the data and trading services provider, Refinitiv.

Signalling its commitment, HKEX added that it has held initial constructive discussions with regulators and policy makers.

“The board of HKEX continues to believe that the proposed combination with LSEG represents a highly compelling strategic opportunity to create a global market infrastructure leader,” said HKEX in a statement, responding to LSEG’s rejection.

HKEX has offered £20.45 a share in cash and 2.495 newly issued HKEX shares.

“Bringing HKEX and LSEG together will redefine global capital markets for decades to come,” said Charles Li, chief executive of HKEX, on Wednesday when HKEX went public with details of its offer.

“Both businesses have great brands, financial strength and proven growth track records. Together, we will connect East and West, be more diversified and we will be able to offer customers greater innovation, risk management and trading opportunities. A combined group will be strongly placed to benefit from the dynamic and evolving macroeconomic landscape, whilst enhancing the long-term resilience and relevance of London and Hong Kong as global financial centres.”

In its rejection of the HKEX bid LSEG said that, despite its long-term interest in China, its relationship with the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) remains its preferred and direct channel to access the many opportunities with the country.

LSEG and SSE operate a Stock Connect aimed to encourage cross-border investment between the UK and China, providing firms and investors mutual access to the capital markets in both countries via an arrangement between the two exchanges.

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This follows hot on the heels of 2017, when the headline-grabbing proposed mega-merger/”merger of equals” between London Stock Exchange (LSEG) and Deutsche Borse was spiked by the European Commission over concerns of a potential/very probably monopoly over the European markets, while there were significant buy-side tie-ups between Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management, and Janus Capital and Henderson Group.

So, with a cast of players including NEX and CME Group, State Street and Charles River, IHS Markit and Ipreo, The TRADE’s very first (and very unofficial) M&A awards runs the rule over most noteworthy of this year’s M&A activity so far.

Biggest game-changer: CME & NEX Group

The most significant of deals so far in 2018 is the £3.9 billion marriage between US futures exchange operator CME Group and the UK’s FinTech and electronic trading powerhouse NEX Group – formerly ICAP. While analysts may have rated CME Group’s £3.9 billion offer for NEX Group as exceeding market predications, it was nonetheless enough to deter rival exchange groups, such as LSEG, from swooping in with a higher bid. NEX Group’s shareholders have already voted in favour of the acquisition and the deal is, at the time of writing, on track to be completed later this year.

This merger should prove to be an absolute game-changer for the industry on more than one front, as both firms streamline trading operations and combine platforms, bringing cash and futures products together with over-the-counter (OTC) products. Should CME Group combine its clearing services with NEX Group’s OTC derivatives post-trade services provider TriOptima, more than a few feathers will be ruffled in the European OTC clearing market, with the likes of the London Stock Exchange’s LCH business the prime target to be knocked off its perch.

It’s also a firm commitment from CME to build out its operations in Europe following the closures of CME Europe and CME Clearing Europe last year, particularly in London where NEX Group is based. The exchange giant already has a sizeable presence in the UK capital which will more than likely be bolstered going forward through the addition of NEX, going against the overwhelming trend of financial firms looking for the exit in the face of impending Brexit chaos. Outgoing NEX chief executive Michael Spencer has been characteristically outspoken on the subject, talking up London’s prospects for the future and an advisory role within CME’s new acquisition means his influence will still be firmly felt internally.

Most dramatic deal: ION Investment Group & Fidessa

When it comes to sheer drawn-out drama, the award for the most dramatic acquisition of the year so far, there’s only one winner: Fidessa. After news of Temenos’ initially successful bid for the well-established industry vendor hit headlines in February, a sudden frenzy of counterbids from various other companies was triggered and an ongoing saga involving numerous participants, as well as involvement from the UK Takeover panel to chivvy the deal along.

After Fidessa accepted the initial £1.4 billion offer from Temenos, with a shareholder meeting planned to agree with the terms of the deal, the company announced – without the consent of the those involved – that ION Investment Group and SS&C Technologies had also approached the firm with higher offers.

Following weeks of uncertainty, competition and regulatory probes, Fidessa finally accepted a £1.5 billion offer from ION Investment Group that was 8.5% higher than Temenos’ original offer. Somewhat understandably, Temenos decided against raising its offer for the trading technology vendor and terminated its cooperation agreement.

It’s a compelling union, with Fidessa having long-established itself in the equities and derivatives trading world partnered with ION’s fixed income and foreign exchange (FX) focus. However, there may yet be a sting in the tail for Fidessa, as the UK Competition and Markets Authority announced an inquiry into the acquisition in mid-June, which at the time of writing, could either come to nothing or delay what has already been a roller coaster ride even further.

Most eye-watering fee: State Street & Charles River

One of the more recent acquisitions this year was State Street’s decision to buy Charles River Development for an eye-watering $2.6 billion. It’s a deal that industry pundits agree makes sense, despite the whopping price tag, with Charles River’s flagship Investment Management System (IMS) boasting a client base of 50 of the top 100 asset managers, accounting for more than $25 trillion in assets under management. The Boston-based custodian bank has been at the forefront of the recently-established trend for back and middle-office providers looking to bolster their front officer activities.

However, investors were spooked by the significant fee shelled out for Charles River as headlines began to flood social media and news outlets. With the order management system (OMS) specialist posting around $300 million in revenues last year, it quickly became clear that State Street is set to cough up nine times that amount to secure the deal.

State Street saw its market capitalisation plummet $2.9 billion the day the deal was announced, the exact amount State Street offered for Charles River. The bank’s market capitalisation fell approximately 7% and the custodian saw its biggest drop in value over the course of a single day for more than two years. But, as custody banks do battle on new fronts, while calls for lower fees from their clients rattle on, State Street could find itself ahead of the curve when Charles River, which will act as a stand-alone business, settles down into its new stable and optimisation of its offering beings in earnest.

Biggest data deal: IHS Markit & Ipreo

News of data and analytics services giant IHS Markit acquiring rival Ipreo certainly proved to be a topic of interest amongst readers of THE TRADE when the deal was announced back in May. IHS Markit agreed a deal to buy the firm for $1.9 billion from private equity funds managed by Blackstone and Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division, which in turn acquired Ipreo in 2014 for $975 million.

Since Goldman and Blackstone invested in the company, Ipreo displayed tremendous growth with revenues up 60% and several new product launches, while also onboarding a raft of new buy-side clients and carrying out its global expansion strategies. For buy-side firms with data strategies at the top of their agendas for regulatory compliance, decision-making and performance optimisation, mergers such as this often provide an opportunity to re-evaluate their existing data set-ups and react accordingly. IHS Markit’s acquisition of Ipreo officially closed in early August, and Ipreo’s services are already being combined with IHS Markit’s in a bid to immediately add value for clients for both firms.

At the same time the news landed about plans to buy Ipreo, IHS Markit quietly announced it is seeking a buyer for its end-to-end OTC post-trade processing business. There has been no movement on this one, at the time of writing, but the business seems to be gaining ground following a partnership which saw the derivatives reporting segment of the business connect to CME Group’s trade repositories in Australia and Europe.

Best merger of equals: Itiviti & Ullink

The “merger of equals” tagline was thrown about a lot last year during Deutsche Borse’s wooing of the LSEG as part of its failed bid to create a German/British exchange behemoth. While this year hasn’t thrown up a deal with quite the same proportions (yet), the phrase seems to have stuck in people’s minds.

In a deal labelled a “union of equals”, trading systems providers Itiviti and Ullink completed plans to merge in March, forming a $200 million Franco-Nordic technology powerhouse. The combined entity now boasts more than 1,000 employees and a local market presence in all major markets across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Integration work of the two products sets began in earnest in April shortly after the deal was finalised. Echoing that of Fidessa and ION Investment Group’s deal, the merger connects Ullink’s buy-side equities and derivatives trading products and services with Itiviti’s market making technology platforms that have predominantly focused on the sell-side.

Consolidation among trading technology vendors is an almost constant vein running through trading activity, as new and old firms alike are sized up and then devoured.

As Itiviti’s chief executive, Torben Munch, pointed out at the time of the announcement, increasing regulatory pressures and changing market structure means market participants are now looking for full-service technology vendors that they can truly rely on.

While much of last year’s M&A activity focused on vendors looking to bolster their back- and middle-office portfolios ahead of the introduction of MiFID II, the market has now turned its attention back to the sharp end of business and managed solutions, and deals of this nature may become a lot more common going forward.

Honourable mentions

High-frequency trading (HFT) continued to condense earlier this year following Hudson River’s move to buy rival market maker Sun Trading. Terms of the deal were withheld, but it didn’t come as much of a surprise to the industry, as high-speed trading firms continue to battle low market volatility, increasing costs and shrinking revenues. The trend continues from last year, when Virtu Financial were quick to snap up KCG last year in a deal estimated to be worth $1.4 billion as it looked to establish a HFT powerhouse.

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Edinburgh Partners, which manages around $10 billion across equities in global and emerging markets, was founded by Nairn in 2003, who will remain as chief executive of the firm and take on the role of chairman of Templeton Global Equity Group.

The deal will close in the first half of the year, subject to regulatory approval. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“[Nairn] brings a tremendous amount of leadership experience and expertise in managing global and international equities, an area that continues to be of strong interest to our clients around the world,” said Jenny Johnson, president and chief operating officer of Franklin Resources. “This is the latest example of the firm continuing to make strategic investments in relatively small, yet highly experienced asset management teams that complement Franklin Templeton’s global offerings.”

Nairn previously spent a decade with Franklin Templeton between 1990 and 2000 as a research director at the Templeton Global Equity Group, before departing for Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, where he held the role of chief investment officer until 2003 when he founded Edinburgh Partners.

“I look forward to sharing my perspective and experience with the Franklin Templeton organisation,” Nairn said. “The access to Franklin Templeton’s extensive global resources will allow me to focus my time on investment management, as we continually seek to bolster our investment process and enhance our clients’ experience.”

Based in San Meteo, California, Franklin Templeton holds over $753 billion in assets under management across its retail, institutional and sovereign wealth business lines.

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It acquired Market Metrics and Matrix Solutions – which provide data and research for advisor-sold investment and insurance products – from financial information and analytics specialist FactSet.

The deal expands Asset International’s portfolio of proprietary data covering the asset management and insurance industries and provides a new delivery model from C-level face-to-face meetings to mobile analytics platforms.

Boston-headquartered Market Metrics was founded in 1993 and has provided consulting and data for mutual funds, variable annuities, asset managers and insurance companies in both the US and Europe.

Commenting on the acquisition, Joel Mandelbaum, CEO of Asset International, said: “This acquisition is a fantastic opportunity to realise our ambition of creating the go-to supplier for the asset management community.  The combination of Asset International and Market Metrics and Matrix Solutions represents an excellent fit for our clients and employees, and we are delighted to be joining forces.”

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