Former Chi-X Europe CEO Peter Randall has been confirmed as the new chief executive officer at Equiduct, the pan-European trading venue.
Randall, who left Chi-X Europe earlier this year for personal reasons, had been widely tipped to take the helm at Equiduct after the Citadel Securities, the market-making and trade execution division of Citadel Investment Group, took a majority shareholding in July. The platform was launched in March 2009 by Börse Berlin, which still owns a minority stake.
Randall said, “I joined Equiduct because it offers a unique blend of service and technology, with a focus on the retail market. I strongly believe that by developing partnership opportunities with leading market participants and liquidity providers, Equiduct will be able to offer first class execution services within a profitable business model.”
Randall became CEO of Chi-X Europe in December 2007, succeeding founding CEO Tony Mackay. He was previously director of business development at Instinet Europe Ltd, which retains the largest stake in Chi-X Europe. Randall also served as executive director of FIX Protocol Ltd.
Equiduct currently provides two execution facilities: HybridBook and PartnerEx. HybridBook is an electronic order book that includes market-maker quotes for each available instrument, while PartnerEx allows market-makers and order flow providers to trade bilaterally at Equiduct’s VBBO or better. The PartnerEx Internaliser service enables users to internalise trades without having to build their own matching engine. Equiduct utilises largely the same clearing houses as the primary markets to make it easier for domestic exchange members to benefit from cross margining.
“Peter has an outstanding track record of building successful platforms. With his experience, he is perfectly positioned to leverage Equiduct’s technology to implement an aggressive roll-out of client-facing services,” said Patrik Edsparr, global CEO of Citadel Securities. “He is well-respected within the industry and has strong relationships with both buy- and sell-side firms globally. We are pleased to bring him on board to run Equiduct.”
“We are very excited to leverage Peter’s formidable experience and look forward to the second wave of innovation in European execution,” said Matteo Cassina, president of Citadel European Execution Services, a division of Citadel Securities.
Randall will succeed Artur Fischer, who had been serving as Equiduct’s CEO and as the co-CEO of Börse Berlin AG. “I am delighted that Peter has joined the Equiduct platform,” said Fischer, who will remain in his position at Börse Berlin AG. “He is a visionary who can guide Equiduct to the next level.”
According to figures from data vendor
Thomson Reuters, Equiduct traded €177,583 in November, but has since seen a surge in volume accounting for over €20 million so far this month. By comparison, Chi-X Europe traded €90.6 billion in November.