Acquisition of Thomson Reuters risk business closes

The acquisition of the trade and risk management business of Thomson Reuters by US private equity firm Vista Equity Partners has completed today with the unveiling of a new company, Turaz, and the launch of the latest version of the flagship Kondor+ trade and risk management platform.

Thomson Reuters decided last year to sell its trade and risk management business, which previously resided within its enterprise division. In September 2011, the vendor announced that Vista Equity Partners had made a binding offer to buy the business for an undisclosed sum, and that it would begin the divestment process with a view to completion by the end of January.

Turaz will be headquartered in London with 1,000 staff globally, serving roughly 600 clients across 66 countries. It will be headed by president and chief executive Bret Bolin, who was previously chief executive of P2 Energy Solutions, a software and service provider in the oil and gas sector also owned by Vista Equity Partners.

"Our strategic priority will be to look at how we build on our current product roadmaps to ensure our customers receive maximum added value from the software and services we deliver. This commitment is demonstrated by the launch of the latest version of Kondor+, which has been positively received by both new and existing clients," says Bolin.

Bolin's senior management team at Turaz includes a number of veterans from Thomson Reuters, with John Palmiero as head of global sales and marketing, and Boris Lipiainen as head of product management and development in London. New additions include Alan Somerville as head of global client services and support, and Andrew Hicks as head of all general and administrative functions.

The Kondor+ platform, which covers pre-trade analytics, trade capture, real-time position keeping, risk management and back-office processing, operates across asset classes but has its biggest footprint in foreign exchange, according to Lipiainen. The new version of Kondor+ has greater openness and flexibility to integrate third-party pricing and analytics, and it also incorporates greater functionality to support global FX trading, he adds.

"What we have done with version three is to build on our historical strength in FX and to support the ability of our customers to trade FX 24-7. We have improved our FX analytics, specifically around options pricing, and we have made sure the platform supports global FX trading across timezones and regions," Lipiainen explains.