Thomson Financial Invests $180 Million in TradeWeb

Date: Friday, October 12, 2007
Author: Alex Akesson, HedgeCo.Net

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.Net)-Thomson Financial yesterday announced it plans to form a strategic partnership with nine of the world's leading global dealers including, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS to drive the expansion of electronic trading using the TradeWeb platform.

Under the terms of the agreement, the dealers will invest approximately $180 million to purchase a minority stake in TradeWeb's established markets. Separately, Thomson and the dealers will fund additional investment in asset class expansion.

"This partnership is a natural step forward in the evolution of the online financial marketplace, taking us closer to the time when almost all trading is electronic," said Jim Toffey, CEO of Thomson TradeWeb. "TradeWeb is ideally positioned to seize this opportunity, and expand e-trading for our clients on one platform through organic growth and through acquisition. The end-game is to be the leading global network where markets meet."

The transaction is expected to close in the next few months, pending regulatory approval. TradeWeb will maintain its global headquarters in Jersey City, NJ. Average daily trading volume on TradeWeb exceeds $250 billion.

Thomson TradeWeb is the leading online fixed-income trading network with over 12 million trades executed and total volume surpassing $200 trillion since its inception in 1998.

Alex Akesson
Editor for HedgeCo.Net
Email: alex@hedgeco.net