Intercontinental Exchange agreed to acquire BondPoint, Virtu Financial's electronic fixed-income trading venue, for $400 million in an all-cash deal, according to announcements by ICE and Virtu.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, both firms said in separate news releases issued Tuesday.
Virtu had acquired BondPoint as part of its $1.4 billion purchase of KCG Holdings, which closed in July.
In his firm's news release, Douglas A. Cifu, Virtu CEO, called BondPoint "a leading franchise in credit trading" but said, "after a thorough analysis, we concluded that BondPoint is a unique asset better suited to operate outside of Virtu's core operations."
The acquisition will put ICE in competition with major bond market-makers Tradeweb and MarketAxess.
Also on Tuesday, ICE announced it acquired a 4.7% stake in Belgian-based clearing and settlement firm Euroclear from Royal Bank of Scotland Group for €275 million ($325 million).
