Turquoise is eyeing a sale
TURQUOISE, the high-profile equity trading platform owned by a consortium of investment banks, has hired UBS to find a buyer for the business.
The City trading platform, launched last year as a rival to existing stock exchanges, is believed to have sent out documents to 18 firms including the London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Boerse, NYSE Euronext, Chi-X Global and Nasdaq OMX.
Turquoise chief executive Eli Lederman confirmed the company is working with UBS to “explore strategic options.”
The move follows the expiry of an agreement five months ago between the founding banks that act as market-makers for the shares traded on the platform. The nine founding banks include UBS, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch.
Turquoise’s market share slipped to low single digits after the agreement with its founding banks ended in March, but has since regained some ground. Turquoise now accounts for 7 per cent of FTSE 100 trading, 7.7 per cent in France’s CAC 40 and 5.7 per cent Germany’s DAX.
Since its launch in September last year, Turquoise has competed with other trading platforms such as Chi-X Europe and Bats Europe, as well as established exchanges like the London Stock Exchange.
Turquoise raised a second round of capital last November and said it would be “cash generative” in the first quarter of 2009. But in June it said it would approach existing shareholders for a third round of fund-raising.
Earlier in the year Turquoise held talks with Nasdaq OMX about a potential deal, but it fell through.