Knight Capital Group, the trade execution and asset management services provider, has acquired institutional fixed income broker-dealer Libertas Holdings.
The deal is worth $50 million in cash and $25 million of unregistered Knight stock, but also includes a potential earn-out of up to $75 million of stock, based on the future performance of Libertas in the three-year period following the close of the deal.
Libertas has been renamed Knight Libertas. Founder Gary Katcher has been appointed senior managing director and head of global institutional fixed income. The firm will offer trade execution services and investment research across a broad range of fixed income securities, including high yield and high grade corporate bonds, distressed debt, asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities, convertible bonds and syndicated loans.
“With the acquisition of Libertas, Knight now has top-flight institutional fixed income capabilities to offer our clients,” said Thomas Joyce, chairman and CEO, Knight Capital Group, in a statement. “Gary has assembled an impressive team and under his continued direction we look forward to building on the client, volume and revenue growth.”