.jpg)
Equiduct announced today that it has secured new funding to support its growth plans. Participation in the funding involves several new strategic investors including BNP Paribas Securities Services, KBC Securities, VIEL GROUP and Winterflood Securities. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The new partners join Knight Capital Group, Inc. and Börse Berlin in a new ownership structure. Since the founding in 2007, Equiduct has established itself as one of the fastest-growing platforms in Europe. In 2012, turnover increased 7% year over year despite a decline across all European lit books of 21%.
Equiduct recently announced that Virtu Financial and Winterflood Securities have also joined the platform as market makers.
Under an expanded organizational structure, Equiduct will continue to grow its sophisticated trading platform which allows investment firms to quickly and cost-effectively meet their MiFID obligations and to provide order by order best execution to their clients.
"When Equiduct reached out to its members for support, there was an overwhelming response from the entire market." said Artur Fischer, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Equiduct. "With a mutualized ownership structure, which is also reflected in the new board composition, a tremendous commitment from existing stakeholders, the introduction of new partners and additional funding, we expect to be well positioned to invest in and grow out the Equiduct offering to a variety of European equity market participants."
"Equiduct's new investors share Knight's belief that European market participants deserve and benefit from a strong, alternative trading platform that can provide best execution in a low cost model," said Albert Maasland, Chief Executive Officer of Knight Capital Europe. "The partners came together to back this valuable competitor, and together we are energized and excited about the growth opportunities for Equiduct going forward."
Oriol Pujol, Head of European Business Development at Winterflood Securities, said: "Our partnership with Equiduct is a reflection of Winterflood's commitment to the retail investor community. We are looking forward to collaborating with our fellow market makers, broker clients and the wider investor community to make Equiduct the market of choice for retail investors across Europe."
