Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE), one of the world’s largest exchange holding companies, today announced it has acquired Hanweck Associates, LLC, a real-time risk analytics company based in New York, and the business of FT Providers, LLC, a portfolio management platform provider based in Chicago, commonly referred to as FT Options.
Hanweck and FT Options services will integrate with Cboe Information Solutions, which offers a comprehensive suite of data solutions, analytics and indices to help market participants understand and access Cboe markets. Cboe’s Information Solutions offering is designed to optimize the customer experience throughout the life cycle of a transaction, from pretrade to at-trade and post-trade, by providing insights, alpha opportunities, portfolio optimizations, risk management clarity and execution services. The addition of Hanweck and FT Options to this robust offering is expected to further enhance the customer experience through greater visibility into portfolio and balance sheet risk.
Ed Tilly, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cboe Global Markets, said: “Bringing data and analytics firms that pioneer unique information solutions to Cboe helps us accelerate the pace of innovation and better serve our global clients. Adding Hanweck and FT Options to our Information Solutions group will help us deliver a more integrated product suite in less time and support trading through better asset pricing and risk management software. We are excited to welcome the Hanweck and FT Options teams to Cboe Global Markets.”
Hanweck delivers real-time risk and margin analytics on global derivatives markets, bringing visibility and clarity to capital and balance sheet constraints of banks, broker/dealers, hedge funds, central counterparties and exchanges. Hanweck is expected to help Cboe clients better understand how their balance sheet is optimized through real-time margin calculations of non-linear instruments and analytics that optimize portfolio allocations and hedges.
FT Options offers a suite of customizable, automated, integrated applications that provide research and analytics functionality across options, futures and light exotics for proprietary trading firms, hedge funds and separately managed accounts. FT Options services will provide Cboe clients with tools designed to better manage risk, receive clarity on FLEX and OTC valuations, find market dislocations easier and help generate alpha opportunities.
“Cboe Information Solutions combines a holistic offering of value-add data services to help our clients meet their business and strategic objectives better, faster and smarter,” said Catherine Clay, Senior Vice President and Head of Information Solutions at Cboe. “The cutting-edge services provided by Hanweck and FT Options are additive and highly complementary to our offering, enabling us to take the customer experience to the next level by helping them evaluate their portfolio risk at all times.”
“Since 2006, Hanweck has been at the forefront of quant finance and technology innovation in the derivatives markets. Our services enable our clients to improve their trading and risk management decisions by integrating high-quality, realtime financial analytics into their workflow,” said Gerald Hanweck, Jr., PhD, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hanweck. “I’m excited to add our services to the exchange where volatility trading began, and to be a part of the Cboe team carrying that innovation legacy forward through seamless solutions for the derivatives marketplace.”
“FT Options is a leader in the space — created by experienced traders and risk managers to offer first-in-class, customizable portfolio management functionality to a broader user base. I couldn’t be more pleased to bring our team to Cboe and integrate FT Options’ risk and volatility analytics research platform into the robust volatility trading support Cboe’s clients have come to expect,” said Michael Izhaky, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FT Options.
Terms of the deals were not disclosed. The company funded the acquisitions with cash on hand. Cboe considers its acquisition of the Hanweck and FT Options businesses each and in the aggregate to be accretive for 2020 and is optimistic about the potential for growth going forward. The acquisitions are immaterial from a financial perspective.
