Finextra50 fintech index

The Finextra50 Financial Technology Index is a free-float value weighted index of the world's leading companies that provide technology-based products and services to the financial services industry. It was set at an indexed value of 100 at market close on Friday 4th May 2007. This is a community for discussing the index, its movements and wider M and A activity in the fintech world.

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

The seven billion dollar man

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has tapped Michael Capellas to take over as CEO of First Data when its $7 billion buy out goes through later this year. Capellas made his name as a corporate turnaround artist, first at Compaq and then at MCI. On both occassions he served a short stint in the top seat, savaged costs and sold on the companies for a hefty fee...

12 July 2007 /payments /retail

Elton Cane Digital product delivery at News Corp Australia

Selling bits of Reuters and Thomson

Reuters and Thomson may sell off some of their overlapping products before the acquisition deal is finalised, according to some reports. Thomson One and Reuters Trader, and First Call and Multex are the overlapping products in the frame. But who would buy them? The Deal quotes Larry Tabb and antitrust lwayer Larry Doyle as both agreeing that SunGa...

27 June 2007

Elton Cane Digital product delivery at News Corp Australia

First to leave the Finextra50

With market and sector indices, constituent companies come and go. We knew when we formulated the Finextra50 Index that we would no doubt soon be making adjustments due to the amount of M&A going on in the industry. So who is going to be the first company to leave the index? The Reuters-Thomson deal was on the radar when we created the index, b...

20 June 2007 /payments

Elton Cane Digital product delivery at News Corp Australia

Predictions for changes in the Finextra50

The constituent companies of the Finextra50 index at its launch this week comprise a momentary snapshot of an industry in a rapid state of flux. If we had conducted the same index compiling exercise just two or three months ago, at least three companies would have appeared that now don't -- Bisys, Corillian and J Harland. And I anticipate that in...

11 May 2007 /retail /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

KKR takeover of First Data: the deal goes sour for JPMorgan

Nice gossipy piece of unsourced news from Reuters about a reputed spat between Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and JPMorgan over the private equity firm’s proposed $29 billion takeover of First Data. According to Reuters’ anonymous informant, the two fell out over the future of Chase Paymentech Solutions, the joint venture processor owned 51% by JPM...

27 April 2007 /payments /retail

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Royalblue scores big fat zero with Gartner

Royalblue’s decision to splash up to £63 million on buy-side OMS vendor LatentZero has been given a firm thumbs down by industry analyst Gartner. Unveiling the deal earlier this week, the London-based vendor played up the strategic benefit to the two companies and their respective customers "by providing, for the first time, the potential for...

20 April 2007 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Trading floor bonanza cue for market downturn?

Estate agents and trading technology suppliers in New York and London are preparing for a business bonanza as bulge bracket investment banks scope for sites to build a new generation of trading floors. Bloomberg reports from Manhattan on efforts by JPMorgan, Lehman, Merrill and Goldman Sachs to acquire sites capable of meeting the hi-tech, hi-vis...

03 April 2007 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Inside the Blackstone IPO

Private equity has grown fat on critiquing the operation of public companies. The Blackstone IPO offers a rare opportunity to turn the tables. As part of its filing with the SEC, Blackstone issued a 200 page document that reveals many of the firm's business details for the first time: earnings of $2.27 billion last year, more than $2 billion in g...

29 March 2007 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Smart money freezes out Ice in favour of CME

Where's the smart money going on the likely outcome of the ongoing tug-of-war for the Chicago Board of Trade (Cbot)? Dublin-based person-to-person trading mart Intrade has listed 4 new markets on the Cbot merger tussle. 1. Cbot & Chicago Mercantile Exchange by end December 2007 ~ 65% likely 2. Cbot & Intercontinental Exchange by end Decem...

28 March 2007 /wholesale

Paul Penrose Head of Research at Finextra

Missing Link mystery solved

I blogged Monday about a curious report in the Sunday Times that identified the UK’s Link ATM network as the frontrunner to buy Lloyds TSB Registrars, the share registration arm of the UK bank. Lloyds TSB Registrars acts as registrar for more than 800 companies, including 60% of FTSE 100 companies. The business is valued at about £600 million. ...

23 March 2007 /retail