Liquidnet to extend European block trading

Source: Liquidnet

Liquidnet, the #1 electronic marketplace for block trading, announced today that it has expanded its global pool of natural liquidity to provide trading in five new European equity markets - Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Liquidnet already trades in six international markets - France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, United States and United Kingdom. After only two years of operation, the company's London-based subsidiary - Liquidnet Europe Limited - has established itself as the #1 block trading firm in Europe.

"The trend amongst European institutional money managers is a heightened emphasis on achieving best execution for their funds and ultimately their shareholders. The current market structure in Europe simply does not support large institutional orders. Addressing this problem, Liquidnet has built a seamless trading platform that now unifies eleven global markets and provides access to the largest pool of natural liquidity for buy-side institutions," said John Barker, Managing Director of Liquidnet Europe.

"With these five additional equity markets, there is really no other system like Liquidnet," said Richard Gray, Director, Head of Trading at Schroder Investment Management Limited. "Liquidnet is the only system where I can get my diverse set of blocks traded anonymously and with little to no market impact."

Liquidnet Europe's average principal size per execution is more than ten times larger than that of the London Stock Exchange. In the fourth quarter, 2004, Liquidnet's average execution size was 474,523 pounds Sterling compared to 40,086 pounds for the London Stock Exchange. In the fourth quarter, 2004, Liquidnet traded 1 billion pounds in European equities. This represents a 103 percent increase over the same quarter last year.

Liquidnet Also Ranked a Top Global Execution Venue

Liquidnet was also recently ranked as the fifth least expensive trading venue globally and the fourth least expensive trading venue for both the NYSE and NASDAQ by Institutional Investor magazine. Elkins/McSherry, a leading consultant in the field of transaction cost analysis, conducted the survey.

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