Acquisitive UK market data vendor Markit has bought out International Index Company (IIC), owner of the the iTraxx indexes, and has also agreed a deal to acquire CDS IndexCo which owns the CDX indexes. Financial terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.ICC owns the iTraxx Europe and iTraxx Asia credit derivative indices as well as the global family of iBoxx bond indices. CDS IndexCo owns the CDX credit derivative indices and the synthetic structured finance and loan indices ABX.HE, CMBX and LCDX.
The ICC and CDS IndexCo index families resulted from the merger of dealer-owned indices in 2004. Both are now owned by groups of investment banks.
Lance Uggla, CEO, Markit, says: "The acquisition of IIC and CDS IndexCo will put us at the very heart of the global credit and rates markets. By bringing the indices together, we will create the next generation of credit benchmarks and stimulate innovation in trading across the entire fixed income market."
The official names of the indices will remain unchanged but they will be known as Markit indices. As such, the IIC indices will be called Markit iTraxx and Markit iBoxx with immediate effect. The CDS IndexCo indices will be known as Markit ABX.HE, Markit CDX, Markit LCDX, etc. once that acquisition has completed.
Markit's new index division will be headed by Stephan Flagel who joined the group in June this year from Barclays Capital for global research. Flagel will report to Niall Cameron, a member of Markit's executive management team and head of equities and indices.
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