(Alliance News) - Investment platform interactive investor said Wednesday it has added Aquis Exchange PLC's Growth Market to its platform.
"The news follows a year of record levels of new customer subscriptions and asset flows to the ii platform," Manchester-based ii said.
It added: "It also comes after ii's acquisition of the EQi retail investment book from Equiniti Group PLC, which is expected to increase assets under administration to GBP50 billion and bring the total number of customers using the platform to over 400,000."
Adding the Aquis market to its platform, ii said, will give customers access to 90 companies quoted on the AQSE Growth Market, with an average market capitalisation of about GBP80 million.
ii Chief Executive Richard Wilson said: "We are delighted to add Aquis Stock Exchange to our platform. It will give our 400,000 customers access to more stocks and is totally in line with our ambition to provide customers with best investment choice and value.
Aquis CEO Alasdair Haynes added: "We are very pleased that ii has decided to offer its customers electronic trading to AQSE shares. Some of the UK's most exciting growth companies are quoted on our market and it is only right that the UK retail investor has fair and equal access to these investment opportunities."
Separately, ii has confirmed it is planning to hire former chief executive of Travelport Worldwide Ltd and current William Hill PLC board member, Gordon Wilson, as chair of the company as it eyes a London initial public offering.
Wilson led Travelport, a travel distribution platform, through its initial public offering in New York in 2014.
The hire, Sky News reported on Wednesday, is still subject to approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
Turning to its potential IPO, Sky News noted that investment bankers had yet to be hired for a listing, and that a formal decision to proceed with one had not yet been taken.
https://news.sky.com/story/interactive-investor-to-name-ex-travelport-exec-wilson-as-chair-ahead-of-ipo-12275085
Back in March, interactive investor, the UK's second largest retail investment platform, told the Financial Times it was considering an IPO.
CEO Wilson told the newspaper in March that ii is "looking at the various options" and that a "natural outcome for a firm like us, as a kind of a consumer-facing retail firm, would be" an initial public offering.
Manchester-based interactive investor is second in the UK retail investment market only to FTSE 100-listed Hargreaves Lansdown PLC and larger than FTSE 250-listed AJ Bell PLC. In March, ii agreed to buy the EQi direct-to-consumer business of Equiniti Financial Services from Equiniti Group for GBP48.5 million. Last year, ii bought the Share Centre and in 2017 purchased the UK direct investing business Canada's TD Bank Group.
Peer AJ Bell listed in London in late 2018.
By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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