Company Deal extends company’s footprint in capital markets to financial data management, reference data and security master space

First Derivatives plc (AIM: FDP.L, IEX: GYQ.I), a leading provider of software and consulting services to global investment banks and hedge funds this morning announced the acquisition of Reference Data Factory (“RDF”), a New York-based technology company specialising in financial data management systems, in a deal worth approximately $10m US dollars.

Founded in 1996, First Derivatives currently employs 360 people worldwide and boasts many of the world’s top financial institutions as clients. The company has developed its own range of software – Delta – which is in use in many of the top tier investment banks and hedge funds. The Delta suite of products includes algorithmic/program trading solutions, market data solutions, risk management applications and market data management software. First Derivatives also provides consulting services to clients, across the globe with operational centres in Europe (London and Stockholm), Amercias (New York, Chicago and Toronto) and Asia (Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai).

Founded in 2004, with offices in New York & Toronto, RDF is an innovator in the field of financial data management, including data architecture, reference data, data models and security master software. RDF’s principals were the driving force behind the development of the highly successful “GoldenSource” product. In 2003 the principals left to establish RDF, providing a new and innovative approach to financial data management – “multiple versions of the truth”. RDF’s software suite has been adopted by leading global financial institutions, such as Fitch Ratings. It is the most complete and configurable data models in the industry, together with a powerful distribution / integration / enrichment layer based on service-oriented architecture.

The acquisition by First Derivatives of RDF broadens the range of Delta products on offer by introducing best-in-class products in for example reference data solutions. It also enables the Company to leverage this subject matter expertise into its consulting service offering.

First Derivatives’ CEO Brian Conlon said “The power of RDF software and skills of RDF executive team complement those of First Derivatives extremely well. RDF product suite will fit seamlessly into our Delta product suite which now offers leading products in both Market Data and Reference Data Management. RDF has a successful track record developing financial enterprise data management software, combined with world class data expertise. We will continue to invest in R&D and the acquisition will expand our data management capabilities.”

Garry Wright, Chief Technology Officer, RDF said “We are excited about the opportunities that this deal creates. It gives our existing product suite additional channels to market through the existing First Derivatives client base, as well as extending out global footprint. We are looking forward to leveraging the synergies that this deal offers”.

As part of the First Derivatives acquisition of RDF, Dale Richards, CEO of LakeFront Data Ventures and Board Member of RDF joins the advisory board of First Derivatives plc. Dale is a recognized leader in the global financial information and technology space having been CEO of Benton Associates, CEO of FAME Information Services and President of Enterprise Data at SunGard. Dale will be helping the First Derivatives Board to maximise the value of RDF. Brian Conlon adds “we are very pleased to have Dale join our advisory board. He brings a wealth of experience and creativity that will be invaluable to First Derivatives and to growing RDF”.

The Valordata Feed from SIX Telekurs is a complete back office solution, providing comprehensive security master reference data, corporate actions and valuation pricing for over 5 million global securities. VDF, which was designed from the start to facilitate straight-through processing, delivers even the most complex data in a simple coded manner to eliminate ambiguities and to speed processing. Specifically, the sophisticated data structure of VDF seamlessly links all data elements associated with a security, from terms and conditions, to prices, to markets, to current and historical corporate actions and events.

“By preserving the data linkages inherent in VDF, we’ve ensured that customers retain the full benefit of the structure and encoding unique to SIX Telekurs data service”, said Gerry Marsh, Managing Director of RDF. “These data linkages are critical for the holistic view which is crucial to an effective data management processing chain. VDF in RDF will add tremendous integration value for customers.”

Read the press release.

We have taken the technology build out of the equation and delivered the solution through a comprehensive set of services and business descriptions that support the adaptive reference data enterprise.

ReferenceDataFactory will allow you to deploy an enterprise class data management solution in weeks with an affordable TCO that scales to your needs from a single feed through the universe of financial instruments.

In keeping with their adaptive approach, the RDF Integration Data Model is completely extendable, and can expose data through XML via messaging or web services or through a relational database implementation. In addition to providing advanced service orchestration capabilities, the RDF adaptive implementation provides an extendable base of expert business knowledge exposed through predefined services.

About Lakefront Data Ventures

Lakefront Data Ventures is a network of technology a business firms specializing in data management for the financial services industry. Headed by Mr. Dale Richards, LDV promotes the idea of addressing data management through the collaboration of “best of breed” solutions and expertise available in the market. .