Liquidnet Europe, in announcing its results for the second quarter, said the company 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 European instrument types traded to twelve.
“The first half of 2005 has been tremendous in terms of growth and principal traded for Liquidnet Europe,” said John Barker, Managing Director of Liquidnet Europe. “Members are joining our community at a rapid pace and trading more in the system. We are confident that this sustained growth is the effect of our Members realizing that we are the only institutional marketplace in Europe where Members can get size done while maintaining anonymity and without moving the market.”
Liquidnet Europe’s Member community continues to expand each quarter and now represents euro 2.73 trillion in collective assets under management. The total number of live Member firms trading U.K. and European equities reached 89 at the end of the second quarter.
In the US, Liquidnet said 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.