AUSIEX has entered into an agreement with FIIG Holdings to acquire 100 per cent of FIIG’s issued shares and commence the process of making it a wholly owned subsidiary of AUSIEX by the end of next month.
FIIG is the country’s largest specialist fixed income provider with more than $4.5 billion of funds under advice.
In announcing the move on Thursday, AUSIEX chief executive Patrick Salis said the deal will allow the AUSIEX business to expand its suite of products and services to meet the wider needs of traders, advisers and investors.
Namely, Salis confirmed that its services will now extend beyond exchange-traded instruments listed on ASX and Cboe to now also include over-the-counter (OTC) domestic and international fixed income products via the FIIG platform.
“It will provide local institutions, financial advisers, family offices, SMSF and HNWIs with the most comprehensive investments trading and portfolio administration platform offering in the country,” the CEO said.
“This development is another sign of AUSIEX’s progress towards our long-term plan to become a market utility platform leveraging NRI’s scale and intellectual property.”
FIIG CEO Alex Welch added: “This acquisition brings together two culturally and commercially aligned businesses with highly complementary strengths.
“It marks an exciting step forward in our ambitions to make bonds accessible to Australian investors while continuing to enhance the services we deliver to our clients with even greater capabilities.”
AUSIEX joined system solutions and consulting services provider Nomura Research Institute (NRI) Group in May 2021.
“We are excited to build on an over 25-year legacy of FIIG, an independent company founded in Brisbane and welcome their staff into the NRI Group,” Salis added.
“FIIG has over 6,000 clients and we are pleased to extend the AUSIEX vision to each of those clients of being a trusted partner behind every trade and transaction.”
In March, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) revealed it was suing FIIG Securities regarding alleged cyber security failures in the lead-up and response to a ransomware-related data breach in May and June of 2023.
“ASIC alleges from March 2019 to 8 June 2023, FIIG failed to take the appropriate steps, as is required by an Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensee, to ensure it had adequate cyber risk management systems in place,” ASIC said in a 13 March press release, referring to documents filed with the Federal Court of Australia.
According to ASIC, it was this lack of preparedness that allowed a Russian ransomware operator to gain access to FIIG’s network 19 between May and 8 June in 2023. This compromise saw the hackers steal 385 gigabytes of data, which the ALPHV ransomware gang published shortly after.
