(COMTEX) B: KNIGHT/TRIMARK GROUP OPENS LONDON AFFILIATE TO SERVE EURO
B: KNIGHT/TRIMARK GROUP OPENS LONDON AFFILIATE TO SERVE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS -
GORDON C. CONNELL TO HEAD NEW OPERATION -
JERSEY CITY, N.J., Jul 14, 1999 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --
Knight/Trimark Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NITE), the largest market maker of
U.S. securities, announced today the opening of its London affiliate,
Knight Securities International Ltd. The new office, which received
regulatory approval from the United Kingdom's Securities and Futures
Authority, will arrange U.S. securities transactions between European
institutions and Knight Securities, a U.S.-based subsidiary of
Knight/Trimark. This operation will serve as Knight/Trimark's
foundation for a broader pan-European strategy.
Gordon C. Connell will run Knight Securities International as Managing
Director of Institutional Sales. Connell, 54, most recently was
employed by Prudential Bache Securities (U.K.) Inc., where he started
in 1978 as Senior Vice President. In 1987, he was instrumental in
developing the firm's successful U.S. Equities Sales Trading Desk for
the European region. He managed this endeavor until his departure this
past May. At Knight Securities International, Connell will report to
John P. Leighton, Senior Managing Director, Global Institutional Sales.
"U.S. securities continue to grow in importance for European
investors," said Connell. "Starting today, European institutions will
be able to take advantage of Knight/Trimark's superior sales trading
and market making capabilities. The firm's unsurpassed technology and
customer service, which have already established it as a dominant
market maker in the U.S., will provide European institutional clients
trading in U.S. equities with thebest and most efficient trade
executions in the industry."
Knight/Trimark's focused business model enables the firm to provide
allof its customers with immediacy, enhanced liquidity and price
improvement -- above and beyond the national best bid and offer (NBBO)
-- onall transactions. Key to the firm's competitive advantage is a
combination of human capital, scale and its leading-edge technology. In
short, Knight/Trimark makes markets in almost all publicly traded U.S.
equity securities and handles more volume than its two closest
competitors combined. The firm's large trading volume allows it to
access the best price available for its customers. Knight/Trimark also
provides institutions with on-line access to its trading systems and
has the capacity to handle more than 1.2 million trades per day.
Knight/Trimark selected London as its first European office because the
U.K. is the largest market for U.S. equities outside of the United
States. The move also is an integral part of Knight/Trimark's long-term
international growth strategy since London is the financial center of
Europe in terms of volume and diversity of securities transactions.
"With London as our platform, we have made our first step toward
establishing a significant presence in the global equities
marketplace," said Kenneth D. Pasternak, president and chief executive
officer of Knight/Trimark. "As evidenced by our recent appointment of
John G. Hewitt, formerly headof Electronic Trading at Goldman Sachs,
Knight/Trimark is committed to international expansion and fulfilling
our goal of becoming the largest global market maker. Our strong
corporate culture and entrepreneurial spirit form the backbone of our
business model. We believe that our business model -- driven by our
superior execution and customer service; technology; innovative trading
methodology; and scale -- will prove successful in Europe and other
international markets."
Knight/Trimark, headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, is the parent
company of Knight Securities and Trimark Securities. Knight Securities
makes markets in over 7,100 equity securities listed on Nasdaq and the
OTC Bulletin Board (OTCBB) of the National Association of Securities
Dealers (NASD). Trimark Securities trades NYSE- and Amex-listed equity
securities over the counter -- the Third Market. The four-year-old
company, the number one destination for on-line trade executions, is
the unseen "processing power" behind the explosive growth in on-line
securities trading. It employs more than 550 people worldwide with
offices in Jersey City, N.J.; Jericho and Purchase, N.Y.; Boston,
Mass.; and London, England.
NOTE TO EDITORS: As a market maker, Knight/Trimark performs the
essential task of buying shares when retail or institutional customers
want to sell and selling shares when they want to buy. Orders are sent
via computer or phone to Knight/Trimark -- all of which are processed
in a matching environment where incoming orders are compared against
the company's large limit order book.If Knight/Trimark holds a matching
order (e.g., sell order for a buy orderand vice versa) a trade is made.
If no match is found, Knight/Trimark provides liquidity by committing
its own capital and trading on a proprietary basis. For example, if
acustomer wants to buy 1,000 shares of XYZ stock at $100 apiece, and
only 100 shares are for sale at that price, a Knight/Trimark trader
will fill the order by selling the remaining 900 shares out of the
company's inventory.
Knight/Trimark generates much of its profit through volume of trading
-- the larger the volume, the greater the opportunity for net trading
revenue. The firm has a market making capability in almost all publicly
traded U.S. equity securities and can commit capital in all of them.
With its cutting-edge technology, Knight/Trimark has the capacity to
handle 1.2 million trades per day. In the first quarter of 1999, the
company executed on average 306,000 trades per day, a 147 percent
increase over the prior year's first quarter.
For the fiscal year ending December 31, 1998, Knight/Trimark recorded
$355.7 million in revenues, a 57 percent increase from $226.7 million
in revenues in 1997. Since going public in July 1998, the company's
market capitalization has grown from $750 million to approximately $6.6
billion.
Information about Knight/Trimark Group can be obtained via the Internet
at knight-sec.com.
SOURCE Knight/Trimark Group, Inc.
(C) 1999 PR Newswire. All rights reserved.
prnewswire.com -0-
CONTACT: Marge Wyrwas, Vice President, Corporate Communications &
Investor Relations of Knight-Trimark Group, Inc.,
201-557-6954; or Russell
Dubner, 212-704-4538, or Chuck Dohrenwend 212-704-8102,
both of Edelman Public
Relations, for Knight/Trimark Group, Inc.
WEB PAGE: knight-sec.com.
GEOGRAPHY: New Jersey
New York
England
Massachusetts
INDUSTRY CODE: FIN
SUBJECT CODE: PDT
PER
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