Following its recent expansion into the foreign exchange (FX) market with the establishment of a new FX business line, TT FX, and its entry into the fixed income space with the acquisition of AxeTrading in March, Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), the global capital markets technology platform provider, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Abel Noser Solutions, LLC (ANS), provider of transaction cost analysis (TCA) for investment managers, brokers, asset owners, and consultants. The acquisition is part of TT’s ongoing expansion into new asset classes and the multi-asset data and analytics space.
ANS, the financial technology subsidiary of Abel Noser Holdings, offers comprehensive pre-trade, real-time, and post-trade TCA products and services across a range of asset classes, including global equities, FX, futures, fixed income, and options. The company also provides compliance reporting, trade surveillance, and algorithmic trading solutions.
“This acquisition is strategically significant for several reasons,” Keith Todd, TT’s CEO, tells TradingTech Insight. “As we embarked on this new phase of TT late in 2021, it was evident that we would consolidate our position in exchange-traded derivatives and expand across asset classes. To that end, in March we announced the AxeTrading acquisition, creating TT Fixed Income, and we launched our new TT FX business unit in June. This latest acquisition serves as a springboard for our move into equity markets. Also, as a respected name in the marketplace with a long-established pedigree, Abel Noser Solutions significantly enhances our access to the buy side, particularly large buy-side firms, and further expands our relationships with the sell side.”
Following the acquisition, ANS’s TCA and regulatory services will be made available to TT clients, while the company’s clients will gain access to services and functionality within the TT platform. Abel Noser’s analytics will be integrated into the TT platform at a later date.
“TCA is vital across all stages of the trade cycle, from passive best execution to post-trade broker performance assessment,” says Todd. “The buy side is particularly interested in evaluating how effectively they distribute their trading across sell-side partners and how well those brokers perform. Increasingly, TCA is also used at-trade and pre-trade, helping traders understand the complexities and idiosyncrasies of their trading and influencing trade execution in various market conditions. Data and analytics are crucial in this regard.”
Peter Weiler, Abel Noser CEO, commented: “We are delighted to become a part of the TT family. Our complementary multi-asset platform offerings will drive our business to new heights by continuing to deliver exceptional service and additional product innovation at an accelerated pace to our clients. This strategic move represents a significant milestone in our company’s history and will enable us to leverage the global reach of TT to better serve our customers and offer broader opportunities to our employees and partners.”
TT will also acquire START, a broker-neutral trade optimisation platform, from Abel Noser LLC in a separate transaction expected to close by the first quarter of 2024. The brokerage firm Abel Noser LLC is not part of the transaction and will continue to operate as an independent agency-only execution broker-dealer.
The terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close on August 31, were not disclosed.
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