Swiss structured products provider Vontobel is set to acquire 100% of the shares of derivative.com with effect from Thursday, effectively removing the competition in the multi-issuer platform space as it expands and bolsters its own multi-issuer platform, deritrade.

The price of the transaction has not been disclosed.

The firm said in a statement that the full integration of derivative.com into deritrade will "accentuate the leading market position" of Vontobel's multi issuer platform and "underscore its leadership claim" in the click and trade structured products platform business.

Issuers offering and quoting prices for their structured products on the multi issuer platform operated by derivative.com include Zürcher Kantonalbank, Bank Sarasin, Natixis, ING, Commerzbank, Nomura, RBC, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Rabobank.

Eric Wasescha, chief executive at Derivative Partners Holding, the owner of derivative.com, told SRP that the main reason for the sale was that the platform was not able to attract a critical mass of automated issuers.

“Allthough we had 10 issuers participating, just one of them (Natixis) has been automated with an IT interface,” he said. “However, the friendly take over bid of Vontobel was an acceptable exit opportunity for our start-up investors and we now fully support the Vontobel deritrade multi platform.”

Wasescha also said that there are no issues with staff transfers as derivative.com did not have any staff and "everything was sourced from third party companies.“

In an interview which will be published later this week, Gerhard Meier, head of multi-issuer platform at Vontobel, told SRP that the bank was committed to continue to further build-up its offering and that it was in active discussions to add more issuers to its deritrade platform.

The move follows Vontobel's recent rollout of its "deritrade pricer" platform for structured products to the Singapore wealth management market at the end of March. Vontobel also announced the addition of UBS to its "click and trade" multi-issuer platform in March.

The Swiss bank said that issuers joining deritrade will benefit from "significant efficiency gains" along the entire structured products process chain from the design phase through to distribution.

"The resulting cost savings generate added value for purchasers of structured products, thus increasing their attractiveness compared to other asset classes such as equities or bonds," it said.

Vontobel's deritrade allows for the direct comparison of prices in line with future requirements relating to price transparency that will apply in connection with new investor protection rules.

Derivative.com was one of the first multi-issuer independent issuance platforms for structured products. The trading platform was launched in 2010 and was aimed at banks and asset managers looking for quotes on tailor-made issuance of structured investment products with multiple issuers.

Calls to Vontobel for comment were not returned by press time.

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