ITG Fully Acquires POSIT

By Staff Writer

January 04, 2005 at 07:00 PM

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NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com)–Investment Technology Group announced plans to boost its ownership interest in POSIT, an equity matching system.

The POSIT deals adds to ITG's direct electronic access trading business, which includes hedge funds. Earlier this month, ITG said it was considering a deal with E-Crossnet, which would help boost its business in Europe (see

Ray Killian, ITG chairman, president and chief executive, said in a statement that the POSIT acquisition was a strategic one for ITG and would result in savings from decreased royalty payments.

POSIT was created as a joint venture 1986 in an agreement between ITG (which at the time was a unit of Jefferies & Co) and Barr Rosenberg Associates. An acronym for "Portfolio System for Institutional Trading," POSIT was the first electronic, intra-day equity matching system in the world.

Now, ITG plans on being the sole owner of POSIT paying US$90 million for the remaining 50% of the entity along with a contingent component of 1.25 % of revenues that is payable over 10 years following the deal's closing. ITG at its discretion has the right to accelerate the contingent payments at any time during the 10 years.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year and is subject to regulatory approval.

Separately, ITG is linking its algorithmic trading servers to users of LatentZero's order-management system, called Minerva. The LatentZero agreement will increase the accessibility of ITG's trading tools to global markets, officials said.

Contact Bob Keane with questions or comments at: [email protected].

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