Vega-Chi has set a date for the launch of its new multilateral trading facility (MTF) for European high yield and subordinated financial bonds.
Due to be launched on 7 February, the Vega-Chi MTF is a buy-side to buy-side trading platform designed to allow institutional investors to trade directly with each other in an anonymous setting. Without brokers, Vega-Chi claims it can offer participants better prices than they would receive elsewhere.
The platform also promises full pre-trade and post-trade transparency and historical price information, as well as access to a block trading facility which allows participants to negotiate larger trades with each other.
Since February 2010, Vega-Chi has already operated a European trading platform for European and Asian convertible bonds, using the same trading engine. That platform has 65 participants.
“We believe the high yield and subordinated financial bond markets are now ready for electronic trading and clients are much more aware and eager about the benefits of accessing liquidity directly from each other,” said Constantinos Antoniades, CEO, Vega-Chi. “The execution price savings to clients could be significant and we believe it will improve the current structure of these markets.”
UK-based Vega-Chi was established in 2009 by ex-Goldman Sachs convertibles trader Antoniades. The firm reported that it has traded US$38 billion in some 240 different convertible bonds since its European launch.