Virtu Financial, the high-speed trading firm, just announced a deal acquire KCG Holdings in an all cash transaction deal for $1.4 billion. Virtu CEO Doug Cifu said that "KCG fits perfectly with Virtu's strategic priorities," and said there would be "significant value creation through synergies." That could put employees at the two companies on edge.
Virtu said in a presentation that it has identified $208 million of net cost savings in the deal, $180 million of which would be achieved in the area of "occupancy, overhead and redundancies."
Virtu said in the presentation that it would integrate middle and back office and support functions, and corporate, regulatory, and compliance departments. In other words, there are job cuts on the way. Virtu currently employs 148 people while KCG employs 952.
Virtu CEO Cifu had this to say on the subject (emphasis ours):
"KCG fits perfectly with Virtu's strategic priorities to apply our market making and technological expertise to customer wholesale order flow and expand Virtu's growing agency execution business by offering clients a combination of Virtu and KCG's superior algorithms and proprietary analytical tools. In addition, there is immediate opportunity for revenue growth and significant cost saving."
Virtu is expecting the deal to close during the third quarter of this year after receiving both regulatory and KCG shareholder approval.