Pan-European exchange Equiduct has been rescued from the brink of oblivion by a group of new investors after its largest shareholder Citadel pulled its backing from the platform.
The new funding involves several new strategic investors including . Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Equiduct's new investors - BNP Paribas Securities Services, KBC Securities, Viel Group and Winterflood Securities - join Knight Capital Group and Börse Berlin in a new mutualised ownership structure in which no participant owns more than 25% of the business.
Equiduct recently announced that Virtu Financial and Winterflood Securities have also joined the platform as market makers.
"When Equiduct reached out to its members for support, there was an overwhelming response from the entire market." says Artur Fischer, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Equiduct. "With a mutualised ownership structure, which is also reflected in the new board composition, a tremendous commitment from existing stakeholders, the introduction of new partners and additional funding, we expect to be well positioned to invest in and grow out the Equiduct offering to a variety of European equity market participants."
Fischer told Reuters that breaking even had replaced building market share in the near term as a primary goal, as the firm cuts its costs and raises prices in a tough, low volume, competitive market.
Oriol Pujol, head of European business development at Winterflood Securities, says of his firm's decision to invest: "Our partnership with Equiduct is a reflection of Winterflood's commitment to the retail investor community. We are looking forward to collaborating with our fellow market makers, broker clients and the wider investor community to make Equiduct the market of choice for retail investors across Europe."