Liquidnet, the buy-side-only crossing network, is to open an office in Singapore this month following a surge in demand for crossing in the country among its buy-side members.
The office is Liquidnet’s fourth in the region after Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Sydney, and will be managed by Greg Henry, who was previously responsible for Liquidnet’s portfolio trading operations in New York. He has also held positions at Fidelity Capital Market Services, ITG and Instinet.
Liquidnet started its Asian operations last November, trading equities in Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Japan. During the third quarter of 2008, the average trade value in Singapore-listed equities on Liquidnet was S$1.8 million.
“Member interest in Singapore and all of Asia has grown stronger as the global markets have become more challenging,” said David Klinger, managing director of Liquidnet Asia. “Buy-side investors representing millions of individual investors are expressing an even greater need in these shifting markets to trade large blocks of Asian stock quickly to preserve the conviction of their trading decisions. That is where we add great value.”