In a sharp change of direction, California-based Zealous Trading Group is selling off its Zats alternative trading platform and moving into the adult entertainment business.
Zealous Trading Group owns Zats - Zealous Alternative Trading System - through its subsidiary Zealous Capital Markets. The platform provides an electronic marketplace for the primary issuance and secondary trading of private placements and restricted and illiquid securities.
The group has now agreed to sell the platform to Atlanta-based Global Access Holdings, which was selected by Zealous to work on a market data portal last year. Global Access says it will merge research and trading capabilities from both firms to build a platform - called Gate - for transacting in illiquid securities.
Vince Molinari, CEO, Global Access Holdings, says: "After working for the last year with Zealous Capital Markets, it became very clear that this market needed a combined platform, where research, analytics and trading were all merged seamlessly. Our vision for Gate is to provide the gateway to illiquid securities transactions globally."
Meanwhile, in what it calls a "change in corporate direction", Zealous Trading Group is changing its name to Adult Entertainment Capital (AEC).
The firm says it plans to launch over six new portfolio investments in the adult industry before the end of September, ranging from "credit card processing for the adult business to real estate for the swingers lifestyle".
Milton Ault, chairman and CEO, AEC, says: "AEC will be the first publicly traded private equity firm for the adult industry and at the same time allow the common investor a chance to invest in a piece of the multi-billion dollar market that is the adult space."