Taking home the gold for Best Broker-Dealer “Overall” :Wolverine Execution Services (WEX). Runners-up included Bloomberg Tradebook, Interactive Brokers, Mischler Financial Group and Dash Financial. Best Broker-Dealer Research was awarded for the third consecutive year to Mischler Financial Group, the industry’s oldest minority broker-dealer owned and operated by Service-Disabled Veterans. Runners up in the Best Research category: Stifel Nicolaus and Sandler O’Neil.

Best Broker-Dealer Equities was awarded to Fidelity Capital Markets and  in the client service category BNP Paribas took the prize. Best Options Platform was awarded to Interactive Brokers and Best Options Broker was awarded to WallachBeth Capital.

Noted Mischler Financial Group Managing Director Ron Quigley, who accepted the award on behalf of his firm, “Its a great honor to even be considered as a contender for an industry award when considering the pedigree of the other great firms that were nominated. It’s always good to be in good company and its best to be recognized for capabilities.”

The full list of nominees and winners of Wall Street Letter 6th Annual Institutional Trading Awards is available via this link

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Worldline, the online payments company being spun out of French multinational Atos, has launched its initial public offering at a range that values the company at up to €2.4bn, including debt.The Parisian listing is part of a plan to take advantage of the shift to digital and mobile that has increased the popularity of online payments – though cashless transactions have not caught on as rapidly as some had hoped.

Gilles Grapinet, Worldline chief executive, said the IPO came at “a unique moment of opportunity for growth” with the convergence of three trends – “the digital and mobile revolution, the changes in the regulatory framework for the European payments sector and the shift in strategy by many banks following the financial crisis”.

Specifically, he was referring to banks’ willingness to invest in technology that lowers the costs of transactions.
Worldline, which has revenues of more than €1bn and employs 7,200, specialises in mobile payments for retailers and transport companies, payment processing software for banks and other cashless systems, such as loyalty cards, for hoteliers.
Worldline plans to raise €610m in its IPO, more than half of which will be used to repay a loan to the parent company. Atos plans to keep a controlling stake.The offering has been priced at an indicative range of between €16.40 and €20 a share, implying an enterprise value of €2bn to €2.4bn. Worldline, whose headquarters are in the Parisian suburb of Bezons, filed its document de base – the first step towards flotation – with French regulators at the start of May.
Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are acting as global co-ordinators and joint bookrunners alongside Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas and Société Générale. Rothschild is financial adviser to the company.

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