GBST in sale transaction splitting wealth management and markets

Financial services technology provider, GBST has been sold to global private equity firm, Anchorage Capital Partners.

GBST was acquired by wealth management platform, FNZ around 18 months ago and FNZ announced the sale to Anchorage today

The announcement said that Anchorage Capital Partners investment is focussed on GBST’s Wealth Management division and is committed to supporting GBST’s experienced management team to execute on its growth strategy and deliver market leading solutions to clients.

It said this included support for continued investment and the rollout of the technology transformation of GBST’s market leading platform solution Composer to current and prospective clients.

The announcement said that following the transaction, FNZ will reacquire GBST’s capital markets division including the experienced GBST capital markets team and the market leading Syn~ product suite.

It said this will provide FNZ with the opportunity to expand its product and service offering to both existing and future clients and accelerate the growth and reach of its global capabilities in listed securities trading and post-trade processing.

Commenting on the transaction, FNZ Securities managing director, Scott Webster said the company was excited that FNZ and GBST capital markets division were coming together to expand its presence in securities trading and post-trade processing.

“Capital markets continues to undergo major structural change that will require service providers to renew their systems and processes. This creates a huge opportunity to combine the complementary product strengths of FNZ and GBST’s capital market division.”

“FNZ reacquired the GBST capital markets division because of its talented employees, well- established products and its deep relationships with major financial institutions across the world. We are committed to ensuring these relationships, and the quality of the capital markets services, continue to be enhanced as part of the FNZ Group.”

The acquisition of GBST by Anchorage Capital Partners completed on 22 December 2021, and the reacquisition of the capital markets division by FNZ is expected to complete in Q1 2022. Terms of the agreement are not being disclosed. Both the purchaser and the transaction have been approved by the CMA.