Orc plans to integrate Tbricks’ technology, customers and employees into its derivatives trading technology business following an agreement by its owner Cidron Delfi Intressenter Holding, a company controlled by Nordic Capital, to acquire 100% of the shares in Tbricks. No financial details of the deal were disclosed, but it includes the transfer of ownership of Tbricks to Orc and is expected to close on January 15, 2015.
Orc, under the auspices of its private equity owner, had been looking for opportunities to acquire for three years, but found no good matches before starting to talk to Tbricks last year. Tbricks was co-founded in 2006 by Jonas Hansbo, CEO, and Joakim Hassila, chief technology officer, both of whom were former Orc executives. The company provides next-generation trading technology including a fast core platform and trading apps to market makers, proprietary traders and banks.
Torben Munch, CEO of Orc Group, says: “I anticipate the acquisition will significantly strengthen Orc’s offering in the trading domain. Jonas Hansbo and his team have conceptualised and launched a strong, flexible trading platform designed for the requirements of tomorrow. The Tbricks team constitutes some of the most skilled, passionate and experienced technologists in trading and the addition of them to our team will greatly enhance our competitiveness.”
Hansbo adds: “This is good news for Tbricks. It gives us the opportunity to take what we have done to a much larger audience. With the merger, the advanced software from Tbricks will be married with Orc’s strong ownership and global distribution capacity to create another breakthrough, leapfrogging existing platforms. We remain committed to our clients and are confident the combination will benefit them greatly.”
Munch describes Tbricks’ trading technology architecture as ‘very appealing’ and says Orc plans to integrate the Tbricks platform with the Orc Trader and Orc Liquidator platforms over the next few months. The aim is to deliver one software stack for all clients. Support will continue to be provided for the Orc platforms, although Orc trading customers are expected to welcome the opportunity to migrate to the more modern Tbricks platform. Tbricks customers will remain on the platform and will gain opportunities presented by Orc’s functionality including execution and direct market access to over 150 global trading venues.
Munch comments: “This is a good acquisition, we can deliver more to all our clients. The acquisition also provides the capacity to extend beyond derivatives trading and into other asset classes such as cash equities and foreign exchange instruments further down the line.”
The acquisition adds 40 Tbricks clients in Europe and North America to Orc’s roster of 170 clients worldwide. It also adds all 70 Tbricks staff, including Hansbo and a software development team in St Petersburg, Russia, to Orc’s headcount of 220 employees. The management structure of the enlarged company will be detailed later this week, but it is expected that Hansbo will have a central role with responsibility for all of Orc’s products. A dispute some years ago between Orc and Hansbo over the setting up of Tbricks was settled before Nordic Capital acquired Orc in January 2012 and will have no effect on the acquisition and integration of Tbricks.
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