Knight Capital Group (Nasdaq: NITE) today announced the completion of the acquisition of Libertas Holdings, LLC, for $50 million in cash and $25 million of unregistered Knight stock, effective as of the opening of business today.
The agreement also includes a potential earn-out of up to $75 million of unregistered Knight stock based on future performance of Libertas in the three-year period following the close.
The institutional fixed income broker-dealer was renamed Knight Libertas LLC. Founder Gary Katcher was appointed Senior Managing Director and Head of Global Institutional Fixed Income. He will report to Mr. Joyce and has joined Knight's executive committee.
"With the acquisition of Libertas, Knight now has top-flight institutional fixed income capabilities to offer our clients," said Thomas M. Joyce, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Knight Capital Group. "Gary has assembled an impressive team and under his continued direction we look forward to building on the client, volume and revenue growth."
Knight Libertas provides trade execution services and investment research across a broad range of fixed income securities, including high yield and high grade corporate bonds, distressed debt, asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities, convertible bonds and syndicated loans. Knight Libertas also provides capital markets services to growing companies in need of financing to support expansion.