LONDON (Alliance News) - First Derivatives PLC Thursday said that its market surveillance system has won a contract with IEX Group Inc, the dark pool operator that featured prominently in Michael Lewis's 'Flash Boys', and its overall trading remains in line with its hopes and its full-year results are expected to meet market expectations.
In a statement, First Derivatives, which provides software and consulting services to the capital markets industry, said that IEX chose its Delta Surveillance software platform to provide trade surveillance and analytics. It said the system will audit billions of market data records daily, with real time and historical market abuse reporting capabilities.
First Derivatives did not elaborate on the financial details of the contract with IEX.
First Derivatives also said first-half revenue and earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation were ahead of the prior year. It said trading in the first half, which ended on August 31, was in line with management expectations and expects its full-year performance, to be in line with current market forecasts.
Chief Executive Brian Conlon said that trading in the first half was robust, with the group's consulting division continuing to recruit and deploy additional consultants in response to strong demand. In software, according to Conlon, there has been growing interest in its Delta platform.
"We are currently engaged in a number of discussions involving the use of Delta across a range of use cases and look forward to updating the market on these discussions in due course. In particular, we see surveillance as a sweet spot for the group and are pleased with IEX's choice of Delta," Conlon said in a statement.
First Derivatives also appointed Ian Mitchell, previously director of technology research at Arden Partners, as head of investor relations.
Currently a so-called alternative trading system, IEX last month raised USD 75.0 million in order to pursue registration as a US national securities exchange. IEX, whose Chief Executive Brad Katsuyama was previously the global head of electronic sales and trading at RBC Capital Markets, rose to fame earlier this year with the publication of Michael Lewis's 'Flash Boys', in which the former Salomon Brothers bond salesman detailed the rise of high-frequency trading and its power on Wall Street.
First Derivatives shares were Wednesday closed at 901.00 pence.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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