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Turquoise hires UBS to find a buyer

Turquoise, the London-based trading platform launched last year by the world's biggest investment banks as an alternative to traditional stock exchanges, has sent sales documents to potential bidders and hired UBS to find a buyer for its business.

The London Stock Exchange Group, Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext are among companies to have received the sales documents, according to Bloomberg. Eli Lederman, the chief executive officer of Turquoise, confirmed that the trading platform was working with UBS to "explore strategic options".

The move comes five months after the expiry of an agreement between the investment banks that founded Turquoise – including UBS, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Merrill Lynch – to act as a
market-maker for equities traded on the platform.

Turquoise competes with the traditional bourses, such as the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse, along with newer equity trading platforms including Chi-X and BATS.

The group's market share slipped to low single digits after the agreement with its founding banks expired, but has regained some ground since – yesterday it accounted for 7pc of trading in FTSE 100 equities.

Turquoise, which started operating a year ago, raised capital last November and in June said it would approach existing shareholders for a third round of fund-raising. Earlier in the year, talks with Nasdaq OMX about a potential deal fell through over price, Bloomberg said.