UK telco Colt is set to acquire a majority stake in local financial services firm MarketPrizm from Instinet, the broker that is part of finance giant Nomura.
A spokesman for Colt said no upfront consideration has been made for the group, but instead it…
UK telco Colt is set to acquire a majority stake in local financial services firm MarketPrizm from Instinet, the broker that is part of finance giant Nomura.
A spokesman for Colt said no upfront consideration has been made for the group, but instead it will fund the next phase of its growth strategy. To this end, Colt expects to spend E10m in 2011 to reflect both the costs of the transaction and funding of the business.
He added that the deal is likely to be concluded “in a week or so”.
The acquisition, which will see Instinet remain as a minority shareholder of MarketPrizm, is part of Colt’s efforts to deepen its presence in the finance sector.
Colt CEO Rakesh Bhasin said: “Providing market data and trading infrastructure services is a natural step for Colt as we pursue our vision of becoming Europe’s leading information delivery platform.
“With our strong existing financial services customer base, this transaction will extend Colt’s finance sector capability and presence and create new opportunities to provide trade execution services to clients in equities and other asset classes in Europe and Asia. We are also very pleased that we will be working with Nomura to extend our current customer relationship to the MarketPrizm services for market data, connectivity and hosting in EMEA and Asia.”
Tanuja Randery, who has been with Colt in a number of senior roles since 2004, and most recently led its global business division, will become CEO of MarketPrizm under the plan. Randery will be replacing John Lowrey, who will join MarketPrizm’s board.
Commenting on the transaction, Fumiki Kondo, Instinet’s co-CEO, said: “We welcome Colt’s investment in the MarketPrizm business. Colt’s core knowledge and expertise of networks and data centres, combined with MarketPrizm’s robust trading infrastructure offering, should make MarketPrizm an even more compelling offering for firms looking to trade the rapidly evolving European and Asian markets.”
