Citi has agreed to buy Automated Trading Desk (ATD), an electronic market making and proprietary trading company, for $680 million in cash and stock.
The acquisition, which will see Citi pay $106.2 million in cash along with 11.17 million in new shares, is aimed at enabling the bank to capitalise on the move towards electronic trading.
Citi, which plans to expand the platform to have a global reach, announced that it expects to double its share of volume on electronically traded markets through the acquistion.
"ATD's strong management team and the company's market-leading technology will help us provide best execution to all of our clients by enhancing liquidity through the aggregation of greater flow," comments James Forese, head of global equities, Citi. "The combination of Citi's global equities business and ATD will create a leading US stock trading platform."
The deal with ATD follows other recent acquisitions by Citi, including Lava Trading and Knight Capital Group's options market making business as it attempts to broaden its customer base.