Warburg Pincus, the US private equity house which bought Wall Streeet Systems in January this year, has acquired European treasury software vendor Trema for a rumoured $150m.
Trema, which is based in London, was previously owned by a group of investors including Carlyle Group, InvestCorp Norsk Vekst and ABS Ventures. The business will be integrated with Wall Street Systems.
The combined company, which will operate under the Wall Street Systems name, has revenues of $120m, with approximately 500 employees servicing 300 bank, corporate and central bank clients, operating out of 13 offices worldwide.
The company's executive management team includes Joel Mandelbaum, former president of Thomson Market Information Services, who becomes president and CEO of the combined company.
Larry Ng, formerly co-founder and EVP of corporate and business development at Moneyline Telerate, becomes managing director for marketing and products.
Trema's CEO Michèle Fitzpatrick will be managing director for sales and account management, while Trema's CFO Paul Wheeler becomes managing director for professional services.
Michael Gort, formerly CEO of the Student Loan Finance Corporation, is managing director for technology and development and Karl Jaeger, formerly CFO of TF Database Group, becomes CFO of the new company.
Commenting on the acquisition, Fitzpatrick says: "The combined companies will be a formidable force in the industry, a provider able to satisfy all needs, from the most basic treasury requirements to the most complex, high throughput trading and back-office environments. Trema will appreciably enhance its delivery capacity in the US, where we see very strong momentum, while Wall Street Systems strengthens its presence in Europe."
Integration of the two businesses is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
Gartner Group analysts say for the new firm to capitalise on opportunities it must expedite product integration.
"WSS faces vigorous competition from other providers — Calypso Technology, Misys and Murex — that have more narrowly focused products and are entrenched in Tier 1 institutions," says the anlyst group. "WSS must ensure that the pace of product integration doesn't permit WSS to lag behind its rivals. The complete suite from WSS will likely appeal to Tier 2 and Tier 3 prospects, where specialised functions trail ease of integration — so long as pricing, licensing and maintenance costs are kept low."