London Stock Exchange buys TORA to boost digital drive

By Pamela Barbaglia and Yadarisa Shabong

(Reuters) -London Stock Exchange Group has agreed to buy U.S. cloud-based technology provider TORA in a $325 million deal which it said on Tuesday will add digital assets to its trading tools.

As mainstream interest in cryptocurrencies grows, LSEG said the acquisition of TORA will help expand its trading and banking business globally.

TORA, led by Chief Executive Robert Dykes, supports customers trading multiple asset classes including equities, fixed income and digital assets across global markets.

It offers LSEG the ability to better compete in Asia and North America where TORA has a presence with offices in Hong Kong, New York, Singapore and Tokyo among others.

“Acquiring TORA will enable LSEG to deliver critical ‘at trade’ capabilities for the buy side,” Dean Berry, the group’s head of Trading & Banking Solutions, said in a statement.

The move is the latest in a growing trend of major financial institutions swooping on digital firms in the expectation they will upend trading processes in the sector.

LSEG bought a stake in London-based Nivaura in 2019, betting on a digital platform which was behind the world’s first automated cryptocurrency-denominated bond issuance.

TORA partnered with investment firm Kenetic in 2018 to launch crypto trading platform Caspian which provides a single interface into all major crypto exchanges.

Dykes said the deal with LSEG would provide a “powerful toolkit” to investors by combining TORA’s trading solutions with LSEG’s data and analytics products.

(Reporting by Pamela Barbaglia in London and Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Alexander Smith)