Turquoise sets record trade volumes

Yann l'Huillier: We have signed about 15 new members since March

Alternative trading platform Turquoise registered record market shares last week, just as it announced that it was for sale.

Turquoise is one of a number of "multi-lateral trading platforms" or MTFs, set up over the past two years after European deregulation in 2007.

It is the second most successful, with an average of 5.5 per cent of European equities trading, compared to Chi-X, another newcomer, which holds about a 15 per cent share.

But last week Turquoise performed a record 11.05 per cent of FTSE 100-component trades on August 11, seven per cent of Dax trades on August 12 and 8.06 per cent of CAC -40 trades on August 13.

Chief technology officer Yann l'Huillier said the rise was down to new members.

"We have signed about 15 new members since March, and these participants have ramped up their activity in recent weeks," he told the Wall Street Journal.

The volumes will come as good news to owners BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Société Genérale, and UBS because they could help push up the price on Turquoise, rumoured to be between £25m and £50m.

The banks have appointed UBS to find a better price for the platform after an initial approach earlier in the summer from Nasdaq-Omx, the US exchange group.