Laurent Paulhac is CEO of Millennium Advisors.
What were the key themes for your business in 2023?
Last year was another strong year for Millennium, as we continued to push on two fronts; further strengthening our position in our core USD Corporates business whilst also broadening and expanding our geographic and product footprint. Underpinning the success of both of these efforts has been continued investment in our people and our technology. It is the interplay of these two which has been the secret to our successes over the past ten years, and will be for the next ten.
Our headcount grew meaningfully in 2023, including a number of senior hires to bolster the executive team and underpin the next phase of our growth ambitions. It is testament to the exciting path we are on as a firm that we have recruited so many talented individuals. We spent a lot of time this year ensuring that we balanced this growth in headcount with continued cultural cohesion.
We ended the year as a top 3 dealer by ticket count and top 9 dealer by volume in USD Corporates. Our Municipals and CDs business have grown steadily while our Agency and European businesses had a record year in 2023. A lot of progress on a lot of fronts, and a lot more to come.
What market trends are you watching for the year ahead?
The market landscape is in a phase of generational change and many of the bigger trends of recent years continue to play out. The maturation of different trading protocols such as portfolio trading; the breakdown of the traditional buy side/ sell side distinction and what that means for liquidity provision in general.
One of the most seismic has been continued electronification and automation, which we’re now really seeing gather pace around the globe. Our founders believed in this trajectory back in 2010, and we have been paving that road ever since. Our size, the way we are organizationally structured and our laser focus on fixed income means we are nimble; we can be responsive to the nuances of regional adoption of these trends. It’s been key to our success around the globe.
What are your clients’ pain points and how have they changed over the past year?
Fixed income markets have seen a proliferation of “disruptors”. New venues, new protocols, new liquidity providers – whilst in aggregate you hope this would lead to more liquidity, in practice that liquidity is becoming more disjointed. Clients have shared that it can be difficult to understand, manage and maintain, with different workflows and strengths to weigh up in any trading decision. For example, there is a different set of expectations around the way fully automated liquidity providers interact with clients on, say, post trade issues.
Our approach is to meet our counterparties on whichever venue, and via whichever protocol they elect, in all market conditions. The strength of our hybrid model ensures our clients have access to consistent pricing thanks to a blend of technology, quant and human trading expertise, and service provision through our sales, operations and trading teams.
