ConvergEx Finds Buyer for Eze Castle, RealTick Units
January 23, 2013
ConvergEx Holdings said it signed a definitive agreement to sell its order and execution management software businesses to private equity giant TPG Capital.
The units, Eze Castle Software and RealTick LLC, will operate under the name Eze Software Group and will still maintain a close relationship with ConvergEx once the transaction is closed, according to an announcement by the firms.
The two companies have agreed to a cooperative marketing plan that will allow each firm’s services to continue to be offered on an integrated basis. Each firm will also cross-sell the other company’s services.
The deal is expected to close in the first or second quarter of 2013. Financial terms were not disclosed.
ConvergEx and its banker Goldman Sachs reportedly had been shopping the OMS/EMS software platforms since October, and the proposed sale had been slow going, according to several industry executives interviewed by Traders Magazine recently.
Potential buyers might have been scared off by the units’ pricetag, which was said to be around $1 billion and fears that the Eze Castle and RealTick systems might not fit well into other companies’ established product lines, these executives told Traders at the time.
Eze Castle makes order management systems, which are popular among hedge funds; and RealTick makes execution management systems, which are designed to provide better execution and investment performance, selling its services to asset managers.
Following the close of the transaction, ConvergEx said it would continue to focus on and expand its remaining global execution, institutional brokerage and trading-related businesses.
ConvergEx was formed in October 2006 by the combination of Eze Castle Software and BNY Mellon’s institutional execution business. GTCR, a Chicago-based investment firm, also was a founding partner at the onset.
Both GCTR and BNY Mellon said in a release that they remain committed to the long-term success of ConvergEx and will maintain their investments in the company.
Buyer TPG Capital is one of the largest private equity investment firms in the world, with $54.5 billion in capital under management. The firm invests in a broad range of industries including consumer/retail, media and telecommunications, industrials, technology, travel/leisure and health care.
Fort Worth-based TPG Capital, formerly Texas Pacific Group, was founded in 1992 by David Bonderman, James Coulter and William S. Price III.
