Context
Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, smartTrade Technologies is a global leader in managed services and hosted software solutions for trading desks.
smartTrade’s liquidity management solutions enable financial institutions to develop and run high-performance trading platforms throughout the world. The Company works with a variety of clients ranging from banks, brokers and hedge funds to proprietary trading desks. The business has expanded rapidly in recent years and today has a global client base, with subsidiaries around the world, including in London, Geneva, Milan, New York, Tokyo and Singapore.
smartTrade was looking for a new financial shareholder to accelerate its growth as a global leader in multi-asset electronic trading solutions while providing liquidity for the historical shareholders Keensight Capital and Pléiade Venture.
Hg (a leading European investor in software) was identified as the best partner to meet smartTrade’s financial objectives. Their investment will help continue innovation and R&D, strengthening smartTrade’s position as one of the most technologically advanced players in the industry.
About Hg
Hg is a leading European investor in software. Deep technology expertise, complemented by vertical application specialisation and dedicated operational support, provides a compelling proposition to management teams looking to scale their businesses.
Hg has an investment team of nearly 100 professionals, plus a portfolio team of more than 30 operators, providing practical support to help our businesses to realise their growth ambitions. Based in London, Munich and New York, Hg has current funds under management of approximately €12 billion, an aggregate portfolio enterprise value of c. €30 billion and serves some of the world’s leading institutional and private investors.
About smartTrade
Pioneer in multi-asset electronic trading solutions, smartTrade Technologies delivers innovative and intelligent technology enabling customers to focus on trading and grow their business while lowering total cost of ownership.
smartTrade Technologies provides agile end-to-end trading solutions supporting Foreign Exchange, Fixed Income, Equities and Derivatives asset classes with connectivity to over 130 liquidity providers, aggregation, smart order routing, order management, pricing, distribution, risk management capabilities and a HTML5 user interface.
Deal Team
Should you want to know more about this transaction, you can contact one of the team members above
Bryan, Garnier & Co acts as Sole Financial Advisor to Hg on their investment in smartTrade
Bryan, Garnier & Co acted as the Sole Financial Advisor to Hg.
Bryan, Garnier & Co assisted Hg in providing sector knowledge, valuation expertise as well as continuous process intelligence. Bryan, Garnier & Co also leveraged its deep knowledge of the French local market to assist Hg in structuring and negotiating the terms of the management incentive plan.
Previously in 2015, Bryan, Garnier & Co advised Keensight Capital in its investment in smartTrade Technologies.
This transaction continues to mark Bryan, Garnier & Co’s unrivalled expertise in the European software and financial services space. Notable recent transactions in software include the sale of Apak to Sopra Banking Solutions and the sale of Prima Solutions to Carlyle, as well as the acquisition of Geodesial and of Sogelink by Keensight Capital. Additionally, the Financial Services practice has recently advised on the acquisition of Recocash by IK Investment Partners, and the acquisition of Linxo Group by Crédit Agricole Payment Services.
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