Tradeweb (NASDAQ: TW), the electronic trading marketplace operator, agreed to buy credit-trading platform Trumid for about $1.97bn after the US close yesterday. After-hours quotes showed the shares first falling 11%, then trading 3.7% higher by 10.14pm UK time.
Those after-hours moves are not an official close. Tradeweb shares closed yesterday at $114.70, up 1.07% from $113.49 and their highest close in three months, before the announcement. That is 13.7% above the $100.84 close on the 30th of September.
Tradeweb will pay $1.75bn for the business, plus about $220m for Trumid’s tax assets, valued at their net present value (today’s worth of future tax savings) at a 7% discount rate. Consideration is about $1.89bn in cash and $82m in equity, and both boards approved the deal unanimously.
Trumid runs an electronic platform for US investment-grade, high-yield, distressed and emerging-market bonds. Its trading methods, called protocols, include Swarms and Attributed Trading, and it has a strong footprint with hedge funds and systematic traders. It also adds grey-market trading, meaning trading of bonds before official issuance, and new-issue trading, linking origination with secondary trading. Tradeweb’s own credit protocol is AllTrade.
Billy Hult, Tradeweb’s chief executive, framed the purchase as a push into US credit:
We believe U.S. credit represents a significant long-term growth opportunity, particularly as the market continues to embrace electronic execution and as clients seek increasingly sophisticated solutions to navigate liquidity and achieve better outcomes.
Billy Hult, CEO, Tradeweb
Tradeweb will fund the cash portion mainly from cash on hand. It expects the deal to be accretive, meaning it adds to adjusted earnings per share, within the first full year after closing, with the benefit growing as expense savings are realised. No figure was given, and Trumid’s revenue and earnings were not disclosed. Closing is targeted for the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.
Tradeweb is US-listed, so UK traders reach it through US share dealing. Its investor call is at 1.30pm UK time today, an hour before the US open, and third-quarter results follow on the 29th of October.