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Citadel Securities, a division of Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C., is making a significant equity investment in Equiduct, the electronic trading platform operated by Börse Berlin AG.
The agreement between Citadel Securities and Börse Berlin AG, announced today, will provide funding to Equiduct for developing its platform into one of Europe's leading execution venues. Citadel Securities expects to partner with other leading market participants and order flow providers to further enhance Equiduct's product offerings.
Citadel Securities has made numerous strategic investments in emerging trading platforms and exchanges, and Equiduct represents another such investment opportunity. "In the United States, Citadel Securities has already demonstrated its ability to build market share rapidly by offering superior equity execution to its clients," said Patrik Edsparr, CEO of Citadel Europe. "Citadel Securities will replicate this success in Europe by working with Börse Berlin AG to make Equiduct a premier European trading platform."
Equiduct has built an innovative market model to address MiFID compliant best execution and to offer a fast and cost-effective all-in-one solution for trading equities in a fragmented European market. Equiduct provides two execution facilities, a hybrid book and PartnerEx. The hybrid book is an electronic order book that includes market maker quotes for each available instrument. PartnerEx is a unique trading model that allows order flow providers to execute at a consolidated best price or better if price improvement occurs.
"The PartnerEx best-execution model with potential price improvement is beneficial for all participants," said Matteo Cassina, President of European Execution Services for Citadel Securities. "Through Equiduct, Citadel Securities and other market makers will provide execution services to a wide range of retail brokers and other order flow providers making Equiduct a destination of choice for the European brokerage community."
"This partnership will allow Equiduct to leverage Citadel Securities' market making and client service capabilities as we implement a more aggressive roll-out of our services," said Artur Fischer, CEO of Equiduct and Co-CEO of Börse Berlin AG. "For Börse Berlin AG, this is a unique opportunity to leverage our previous investment by partnering with Citadel Securities, a proven leader in the execution services industry." Equiduct will continue to be operated by Börse Berlin AG.
