European exchanges are battling to snap up data and benchmark providers as they struggle for dominance amid the region’s fragmented equity markets. The latest example is Euronext’s acquisition of Substantive Research, a firm which provides research and market data benchmarking to more than 100 clients across Europe and North America.
Details of the transaction were not disclosed but the acquisition was fully financed with existing cash.
Euronext said the acquisition will complement Commcise, an acquisition made in 2018, which offers cloud-based, commission management, research valuation, consumption tracking and payment solutions.
Following the integration of Substantive Research, Commcise clients will be able to gain access to unique market benchmarks within the application. Euronext said Substantive Research customers will benefit from Euronext and Commcise’s scale, which will help Substantive Research to increase the number of benchmarked vendors, and also expand the variety of benchmarking products that it can offer to the buy- and sell-side.
The Substantive Research deal follows acquisitions of 75% of Global Rate Set Systems in June this year, and 100% of Allfunds Group in March this year.
Competitor Deutsche Börse made investments in HQLAx, Digital Vault Services and Caplight over the same period. HQLAx was an increase of its longstanding stake in the company (first investment was in 2018, the most recent in April). SimCorp was acquired outright in April 2023.
Camille Beudin, head of diversified services of Euronext, said: “The acquisition of Substantive Research will accelerate the growth of our Investor Services business with leading research and market data benchmarking capabilities and cross-selling potential with Commcise, our commission management and research valuation solutions.”
Mike Carrodus, founder and CEO of Substantive Research, said: “With the research market poised for yet more regulatory-driven changes, plus market data consumers grappling with increasing costs and pricing opacity, we are so excited to be able to accelerate our coverage and data depth with Commcise and Euronext’s insight and resources.”
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