Appital Turquoise BookBuilder, which is a collaborative platform between Appital and LSEG-owned Turquoise, has launched its services, according to the press release shared with Finance Magnates on Monday.
The buy-side to buy-side bookbuilding platform is aimed at institutional investors who can proactively source liquidity . The focus of the platform is on transparency and providing control over bookbuilding and deal distribution process with an automated and electronic platform.
“The launch of Appital Turquoise BookBuilder™ represents a step change for the asset management industry in the way they unlock and proactively drive liquidity in the market, ushering in a new era of automation in equity markets,” said Appital’s CEO, Mark Badyra.
According to Appital, the new bookbuilding platform will provide buy-side participants with liquidity discovery and price formation opportunities for illiquid equity positions along with the additional ability to execution of large volume orders on Turquoise MTF.
The launch came after Appital enhanced its infrastructure with the integration of EMS providers FlexTrade, FactSet Portware, TS Imagine, and executing brokers Bernstein and Instinet.
Now, the Turquoise integration will offer buy-side companies straight-through-processing (STP) to more than 20 settlement destinations.
“Where bookbuilding is the appropriate mechanism to find the right price for large block trades, Appital Turquoise BookBuilder™ innovates with the world's first automation of buy-side bookbuilding seamlessly integrating STP trading to settlement,” Dr. Robert Barnes, the Group Head of Securities Trading & CEO Turquoise Global Holdings at LSEG, said.
The First Trade
Additionally, the announcement revealed that the first trade on the platform already originated and was executed by Norges Bank Investment Management through a series of bilateral transactions.
“Unlocking latent liquidity and executing multiple days’ ADV is essential to achieving our investment objectives,” added Emil Framnes, Norges Bank Investment Management’s Global Head of Trading and Transition. “We welcome Appital’s innovative peer-to-peer access of hard-to-find liquidity and executing large volumes using Appital Turquoise BookBuilder™ without market impact or the risk of price erosion."
