Refinitiv has agreed to acquire AlphaDesk, a cloud-based order management system (OMS) offering order and portfolio management, risk and compliance solutions for buy-side clients, for an undisclosed amount.

Refinitiv

Image: Refinitiv to acquire AlphaDesk. Photo: Courtesy of Lorenzo Cafaro/Pixabay

Refinitiv offers pre-trade data and analytics through its financial platform Eikon, integrated with its EMS trading capabilities from REDI. Refinitiv acquired REDI in 2017.

By acquiring AlphaDesk, Refinitiv will bring multi-asset class and multi-currency OMS platform with flexible workflows, to be adaptable to the changing needs of buy-side traders and asset managers.

AlphaDesk software combines OMS and operations management to manage data, integrating with other systems in the buy-side investment workflow. This is claimed to be beneficial for traders and traditional buy-side portfolio managers as their roles converge.

Refinitiv managing director and trading co-head Michael Chin said: “Our past collaboration with AlphaDesk makes them a strong fit for us, and the integration of their platform with our existing products further expands Refinitiv’s presence as a premier trading solution for professionals across the buy-side community.

“With the acquisition of AlphaDesk, Refinitiv now delivers an even more powerful buy-side trading solution that is flexible, compliant, interoperable, and covers all segments of the trading workflow.

“As a Cloud-based provider, AlphaDesk further aligns with Refinitiv’s overall Cloud strategy, and will help provide a more seamless path to implementation and integration yielding significant cost-savings and agility for our clients.”

AlphaDesk CEO Dan Rissin said: “We are very excited about joining the Refinitiv team. There is great potential to provide hedge funds and asset managers what they have been asking for: a simpler way to acquire and manage better technology.

“The combination of our front-to-back, cloud-based system with Refinitiv’s global reach and extensive technology platform will help provide a truly superior offering to clients all over the world.”

Earlier this month, Refinitiv was appointed as the official calculating agent for the Bank of Thailand’s transactions-based Thai Baht benchmark THBFIX. The new transactions-based benchmark replaces the previous survey-based benchmark, which will be administered and calculated by Refinitiv.

The financial markets data provider will use transaction data from its FX Trading and Matching platforms to calculate the benchmark, with 30 Thailand based banks and brokers participating.

The change in methodology from survey-based to transactions-based input data is expected to make the benchmark more robust and could better reflect Thai financial markets’ conditions.