Hedge fund and brokerage software provider acquires BNP Paribas’ hosted colocation business

Options IT, a provider of IT infrastructure to hedge funds and prime brokers, has bought the hosted colocation business of BNP Paribas’ prime brokerage division.

A colocation centre is a data centre where a number of clients share resources such as network and servers in order to save the cost required to build the systems internally.

As a result of the deal, some of BNP Paribas’ hedge fund clients will now use IT infrastructure provided by Options IT’s Core solution, although all of these customers will continue to receive prime brokerage services from BNP Paribas and will stay on the BNP Paribas platform.

According to Options IT, any clients moving to the Core solution will experience a “seamless integration”.

Nigel Kneafsey, Options IT Chief Executive, explained that the deal is part of a wide-ranging trend currently being seen in the financial industry.

“During the past 18 months, we’ve seen a tremendous shift among financial markets participants looking to expand the scope of their global business while minimising their technology and IT maintenance costs,” he said.

The exact terms of the deal were not revealed by the firms, but the agreement also sees Options IT acquire regional data centres in California, New Jersey and Texas, adding to the 12 centres the firm already owns worldwide.