Type Public Industry Financial Services Revenue 1.316 billion USD (2014) Number of employees 1,093 Net income 61.1 million USD (2014) | Traded as NYSE: KCG Headquarters United States of America CEO Daniel B. Coleman Founded July 2013 | |
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Key people Daniel Coleman, Chief Executive Officer Products Market making and trading Total assets US$ 6.830 billion (2014) Subsidiaries Neonet Securities AB, Getco Europe Limited | ||
KCG Holdings, Inc. is an American global financial services firm engaging in market making, high-frequency trading, electronic execution, and institutional sales and trading. The company was formed July 1, 2013 at the completion of the previously announced merger whereby Knight Capital Group, Inc. and GETCO Holding Company, LLC were combined. Global growth equity firm General Atlantic, with a 25% stake in GETCO, made an additional equity investment at the time of the merger. Rene Kern, Managing Director at General Atlantic joined the board of directors
History
Getco LLC was founded in 1999 by Stephen Schuler and Daniel Tierney, former floor traders in Chicago, and had 400 employees at the time of the merger. The firm's primary business was electronic market making/high-frequency trading, though it also provided execution algorithms and a dark pool through its client services arm, Getco Execution Services.
Knight Capital Group was founded in 1995 as Knight/Trimark Group and had about 1400 employees at the time of the merger. Its largest business was market-making in US equities for retail brokerages, though it also provided other services such as electronic execution, dark pools, plus institutional sales and trading. In August 2012 a technological/managerial "breakdown" caused Knight to lose $460m, nearly putting the firm out of business. In December 2012, it agreed to be acquired by Getco LLC. The merger was approved by the respective stockholders and unitholders of both companies on June 25, 2013.
On July 8, 2013, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Coleman rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, marking the completion of Knight and Getco's merger and the unveiling of a new corporate identity, KCG Holdings.
In January 2015, KCG Holdings announced it would be selling its foreign exchange trading platform KCG Hotspot to BATS Global Markets for $365 million.