Slaughter and May advised FNZ on the sale of GBST to Anchorage Capital Partners

Slaughter and May advised FNZ, a leading global wealth management platform, on the sale of financial technology provider GBST to Anchorage Capital Partners, a leading global private equity fund with extensive financial services and systems experience (the “Transaction”).

Following the Transaction, FNZ will reacquire assets of GBST’s capital markets division including the experienced GBST capital markets team and the market leading Syn~ product suit (the “Re-acquisition”). The Transaction and subsequent Re-acquisition will provide FNZ with the opportunity to expand its product and service offering to both existing and future clients and accelerate the growth and reach of its global capabilities in listed securities trading and post-trade processing.

The Transaction follows the UK Competition and Markets Authority (the “CMA”) review of FNZ’s completed acquisition of GBST and FNZ’s subsequent appeal, which led the CMA to ask the Competition Appeal Tribunal to quash its original decision and remit the case to the CMA for reconsideration. Slaughter and May advised FNZ on the initial CMA Phase 2 review, FNZ’s subsequent appeal, and the CMA remittal inquiry. In a significant departure from its original decision, the CMA concluded following its reinvestigation that FNZ should be able to carry out the Re-acquisition.

The Transaction completed on 22 December 2021, and the Re-acquisition is expected to complete in Q1 2022.