TMX Group has invested in US data, analytics and indexing provider VettaFi Holdings to boost growth of TMX Datalinx, the Canadian exchange operator’s data and analytics division.
On January 9 TMX Group announced it had acquired 21% of the common equity of VettaFi for $175m, approximately C$234m.
Jay Rajarathinam, chief operating officer of TMX Group, said in a statement: “VettaFi is a dynamic and growing index, ETF data and related digital distribution business, and we look forward to working together to explore ways to combine TMX Datalinx’s data sets and capabilities with VettaFi’s comprehensive services and expertise to further enhance our offerings.”
Michelle Tran, president of TMX Datalinx, told Markets Media that benchmarks and indices are a core information requirement for clients, who operate and invest globally.
“TMX’s new agreement with VettaFi enables us to continue enhancing our support for ETF issuers – leveraging existing and new information assets in order to create new benchmarks and indices which meet clients’ ever-growing needs,” she added.
The investment advances TMX Datalinx’s enterprise growth strategy by providing access to world class talent in benchmarks and indices, data analytics and digital channel products, resulting in robust growth opportunities according to Tran.
She took on her current role as president of TMX Datalinx in November 2021 after acting as interim president for the previous six months.
Tran joined the group in 2001, then called TSE, as a relationship manager in the equities trading group and became the first salesperson for TMX Datalinx two years later. She rose to head of sales & business operations for TMX Datalinx before being named interim president of TMX Datalinx in May 2021. Before TMX Group, Tran worked for Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Reuters Canada.
Growth strategy
“We will build what we can build, partner with providers such as Overbond and make acquisitions such as Wall Street Horizon,” said Tran. “These are all part of our strategy to broaden our coverage and data sets for our clients.”
In November 2022 TMX Group announced the purchase of Boston-based Wall Street Horizon, which provides more than 40 corporate event datasets, including earnings dates, dividend dates, options expiration dates, splits and spin offs, for 9,000 publicly traded companies worldwide.
In September 2022 TMX partnered with Overbond, a provider of artificial intelligence-powered analytics and trade automation solutions for fixed income markets. The two firms are integrating the Canadian Depository for Securities Federal Information Processing Standard (CDS FIPS) settlement-layer for Canadian bond data into Overbond AI fixed income trading tools and analytics.
“Adding settlement layer data to Overbond AI models is the next frontier in data aggregation necessary for discovering best-executable pricing and liquidity in the Canadian corporate bond market,” said Vuk Magdelinic, chief executive of Overbond, in a statement.
Tran said she expected that TMX and Overbond will enable additional AI-driven data and analytics tools across multiple asset classes.
TMX Group faces increased competition as Cboe Global Markets acquired MATCHNow, the equities alternative trading system (ATS) in Canada, in August 2020. In February 2022 MATCHNow migrated to Cboe technology and the US group also launched Cboe BIDS Canada for block trading.
In September 2022 Cboe introduced the One Canada Feed, a consolidated quote, trade and aggregated depth at price information for MATCHNow, as well as NEO Exchange, the Canadian stock exchange it purchased in 2022.
Tran said: “My aspiration is for TMX Datalinx to be a stronger contributor to the group, to diversify our data in areas where we have the right to play such as fixed income and ESG and to grow global market share. We want global customers to come to us for Canadian data but we also provide analytics tools that help our clients gain insights beyond the Canadian perspective.”
