Multiple market sources have reported that discussions between pre-trade data provider Neptune and TP ICAP, the multi-asset trading, interdealer broker and data services firm, are ongoing, with a possible acquisition of Neptune on the cards.
TP ICAP has been an acquisitive business, buying agency broker Coex Partners in 2017, and block-trading specialist Liquidnet, part of TP ICAP’s agency broker business, in 2020. It has a significant capital markets data business, Parameta Solutions, which was registered as a standalone business in Q1 2024.
Neptune, a provider of streamed ‘axes’, used by sell-side firms to advertise their potential to take a trading positions with a counterpart, has been a rare success as a standalone pre-trade data provider in bond markets, since it launched in August 2015. Axes are invaluable to both banks and investment firms, as they help investment firms to understand if a bank is worth approaching to trade specific bonds, either in competition (in-comp) with others or in a non-competitive (non-comp) trade.
Run by CEO and former-chief operating officer, Byron Cooper-Fogarty, the firm was launched by a number of sell-side firms and investors, including Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS.
Neptune and TP ICAP offered no comment.
No information on the terms of any deal has been disclosed.
