Liquidnet, the number one electronic marketplace for block trading, announced its second quarter 2005 results today.
The company achieved its ninth consecutive quarter of consistent growth, boosting its average daily volume (U.S. equities) to 28.9 million shares in the second quarter. This represents a five percent increase over the last quarter and a 46 percent increase from the second quarter a year ago.
Liquidnet executed 1.85 billion shares in the second quarter of 2005, an increase of ten percent over the previous quarter and more than 50 percent over the same quarter last year. For the first time since its launch in April 2001, Liquidnet broke the "40-million-share-day" threshold numerous times.
"We have kept our focus on providing our Members with the type of institutional trading venue that they have been asking for," said Seth Merrin, Liquidnet CEO. "The buy-side industry is in desperate need of an institutional marketplace where money managers can access wholesale liquidity without having to compete for retail-sized order flow. As long as we can offer that, Liquidnet will continue to grow. I believe the best is yet to come."
Liquidnet Subscribers on the Rise
Liquidnet's Subscriber base continued to grow at a record pace in the second quarter. The nearly 400 Liquidnet Subscribers includes 70 percent of the top 100 U.S. asset managers and almost 40 percent of the top 300 asset managers (based on assets under management). The Liquidnet community's collective equity assets under management grew by nearly $1.9 trillion during the quarter, reaching $7.5 trillion.
Liquidnet Continues International Growth
Liquidnet Europe traded more than 1.5 billion pounds Sterling in principal during the second quarter, and a record 3.2 billion pounds for the first half of the year. This represents an increase of 111 percent over the same period in 2004. The average bargain value per trade for the first half of 2005 was 669,729 pounds, which represents a 15.7 percent increase over the first half of 2004. The number of executions in the second quarter climbed 11 percent from the first quarter of 2005 and 111 percent from the second quarter in 2004. Liquidnet Europe also launched two new European equity markets -. Austria and Italy -. this quarter, bringing the total amount of instrument types traded in Europe to twelve.
In Canada, Liquidnet Canada Inc. announced this quarter that it has been approved by the Autorite Des Marches Financiers to conduct business as a securities dealer and Alternative Trading System in Quebec. Liquidnet launched its Canadian operations in Ontario last year on July 27, 2004.