Secondary trading platform Sharemark has been acquired by Asset Match and will now be re-branded.
Companies listed to trade on Sharemark will transfer to a new facility following its acquisition by Asset Match.
Sharemark and its Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF), which provides a low cost secondary trading service, will now be re-branded as Asset Match, after a four to five week transition period.
Asset Match says that Sharemark companies will benefit from an ‘improved profile’ under the Asset Match brand and will now be able to access independent research and information on buyers and sellers to facilitate what it calls ‘fair prices’.
Its electronic platform will enable companies, existing shareholders and new investors to register online, it says, where different parties can then meet on a ‘peer-to peer’ basis and trade with each other transparently and securely.
Sharemark was originally set up by Share plc to allow customers, which it awarded options to, a way of trading. It recently attempted to target businesses listed on PLUS-SX which were worried about its uncertain future.
However, despite PLUS Markets Group announcing that it was commencing an ‘orderly closure’ in May, Sharemark failed to attract any suitors from PLUS-SX.
Stuart Lucas, founder and co-CEO of Asset Match, says that there was no move to try and build up an investor universe, something Asset Match will now be pursuing as it looks to provide UK corporate companies with ‘financial oxygen’.
He says that while similar competitors in the space are largely reactive and focus on de-listers, the new platform will look to target what he identifies as a ‘log-jam’ of £300 billion which is locked up in seasoned, established and profitable companies. Those listed in The Sunday Times Top Track 250 are a group he identifies as a target.
‘That is our demographic, those which have been in business for 5-10 years, have 50-250 employees, make £5-50 million a year and have a mix of shareholders such as angels, entrepreneurs, management, VCs, private equity, and may want to sell 5-10 per cent of shares,’ Lucas explains.
