Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has agreed to buy fixed income marketplace TMC Bonds for $685 million in cash.
Founded in 2000, TMC Bonds provides trading in various fixed income products including municipals, corporates, treasuries, agencies and certificates of deposit, with click-to-trade or request for quote (RFQ) functions.
“TMC Bonds will offer a new and complementary access point to liquidity for our customers and expand our portfolio of diverse solutions in the global fixed income markets across analytics, execution and post-trade,” said ICE president, Benjamin Jackson.
“As the fixed income markets continue to automate and migrate to electronic trading, ICE’s trading and data infrastructure offer customers more choices to access liquidity, conduct price discovery and manage risk in more efficient ways.”
The deal is the latest move into fixed income by the exchange operator, after making several strategic acquisitions last year.
ICE bought Virtu Financial’s BondPoint trading platform last year for $400 million following its $1.4 billion merger with KCG, fighting off competition from major bond market players including MarketAxess and Tradeweb.
The exchange also acquired Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s fixed income indices platform, the second most used bond indices by assets under management globally at the time.
The deal with TMC Bonds is expected to close in the second half of the year, subject to regulatory and anti-trust approval.
“By leveraging both ICE’s expansive reach and breadth of data and analytics, TMC’s clients will have access to workflow solutions far superior to what’s currently available in the market,” added Thomas Vales, TMC’s chief executive.