Deal activity appears to be a hot topic in the market structure world as owners are increasingly seeking to move into new business areas. Joining the conversation is Northern European private equity firm Nordic Capital who is said to be deliberating the sale of Itiviti, the Swedish developer of trading software.
Founded in 2001, Itiviti has developed and marketed world class electronic trading platforms and connectivity solutions that enable both sell-sides and buy-sides to seize opportunities faster and with better success. Currently, Itiviti’s technology is used by investment banks that have been benefiting from the rise in equity volatility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Itiviti additionally creates software for market making, connecting to stock exchanges, order execution, and managing trade flows. The company’s products also include the NYFIX order routing network which connects more than 1,600 brokerages and fund managers. Notably, the company offers a unique design philosophy creating products with modular architecture hosting open interfaces to facilitate business-specific deployment as well as integration to third parties.
Since Nordic Capital first invested in Itiviti in 2012, it has overseen some major developments for the Swedish fintech. Notably, in March 2018, Itiviti was combined with ULLINK to increase its position in capital markets technology and infrastructure. Through this merger, Itiviti and ULLINK became a full-service technology and infrastructure provider for global and local financial institutions.
Since the merger, the combined companies under the name Itiviti have sought to take advantage of the changing trends in the financial services industry with a combined product portfolio that was able to support the complete order cycle across all asset classes so that it would be a more powerful partner to existing and new clients within the finance industry.
While the respective companies have declined to comment, sources close to the deal have shared that deliberations are only at an early stage. There is a potential that Nordic Capital, will hold on to the company for a bit longer. However, it is apparent that strategic options are certainly being considered for Itiviti.
