Instinet Holdings Incorporated, a US-based subsidiary of Nomura Group, confirmed that it is purchasing the algorithmic trading business of FIS. The two companies have already entered into an agreement for the deal.
Announced on Wednesday, FIS Execution Services is an agency-focused broker. It provides customized algorithms and helps clients improve execution quality, minimize information leakage and decrease execution costs.
Under the agreement, Instinet will acquire assets of FIS Execution Services that will include algorithmic trading technology and intellectual property. In addition, it will absorb the staff of the algorithm trading business. However, neither of the companies has disclosed the financial terms of the deal.
“We’re very excited to bring FIS Execution Services into Instinet’s legendary agency business,” said Ralston Roberts, the Global CEO of Instinet.
“There is tremendous alignment between our mission and theirs: we both are intensely focused on our clients’ execution performance quality. And, we both use quantitative research and advanced technology to drive efficiencies and lower trading costs.”
He further said that the services of the two platforms are complementary, and their combination will only benefit the collective clients.
An Established Business
Based in Geneva, a city in the US state of Illinois, the algorithmic trading business was founded in 2000 and was acquired by FIS in 2015. The company provides its execution solutions to buy-side and sell-side firms and quant-driven funds.
“It’s not an easy decision to divest a business that has the depth of skills and reputation our FIS Execution Services team has earned,” said Nasser Khodri, the Head of FIS Capital Markets. “But after extensive analysis, we felt that the synergies our algorithmic trading business would have with a global, highly scalable platform like Instinet’s were very compelling.”
