CreditTrade and Creditex join forces

London-based interdealer broker CreditTrade and New York-based credit derivatives electronic trading platform Creditex have announced they will merge to form a single company to offer voice and electronic execution services in the fast-growing credit derivatives market.

The new company, to be known as Creditex Group, expects to execute more than $2 trillion in notional of single-name, emerging markets, index and index tranche credit derivatives this year. The credit derivatives market grew by 105% last year, with notional principal outstanding hitting $17.3 trillion at the end of 2005, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. Paul Ellis, chief executive of CreditTrade told Risk the merger was a “revenue synergy merger” and not a “cost synergy merger”.“Overall, on volumes of transactions, we will be a close second to GFI. In certain sectors, however, we will certainly be on top of them,” says Ellis. “This is something we have been thinking about for three or four years, and the credit derivatives market has now reached the right level of maturity.”The merger, which will create a company with offices in New York, New Jersey, London and Singapore, is expected to be completed in the next 30 to 60 days. “By combining the two companies' complementary strengths, Creditex Group will be best positioned to lead the market in innovation and voice and electronic execution services,” adds Sunil Hirani, chief executive of Creditex Group.