Appital, the Equity Capital Marketplace, today announced Bernstein as executing broker on its new bookbuilding platform ahead of launch.  Appital brings technological innovation and automation to equity capital markets and improves liquidity discovery and price formation processes of illiquid equity positions.

The Appital platform gives the buyside community greater exposure to deal flow opportunities they have not been able to access before. Buyside traders looking to execute large orders often in excess of 5 days ADV, including in highly illiquid, small and mid-cap stocks, have access to real-time visibility, full transparency and maximum control over the bookbuilding, price formation and deal distribution process.  

The collaboration between Appital and Bernstein was initiated by continued demand from clients, and the integration will offer the buyside community a more efficient and transparent way to execute large in size orders with minimal market impact or risk of price erosion. Flow originated on the Appital platform can be seamlessly executed through Bernstein.

Mark Badyra, CEO Appital, commented: 

“We have been working with Bernstein to develop the platform from the early development phase. Asset managers told us they would like to use Bernstein to execute this type of flow because of their independent market position and strong research focus. Our collaboration gives our shared client base the functionality to find new sources of liquidity which will be unique compared to other technologically driven platforms.”

Bernstein has a history of being at the forefront of new initiatives and a proven track record in giving institutional investors access to new order types, new venues, and now also new ways of accessing liquidity that is traditionally hard to find.

Toby Bayliss, Head of European Electronic Trading at Bernstein Autonomous LLP, added: 

“Our ethos is focused on the institutional market and  we aim to align with the interests of our buyside clients. Appital provides an innovative, automated and more efficient way for clients to source and access liquidity, enhancing our primary role as an execution broker.” 

Over 30 asset managers, who collectively manage over 30tn USD, are preparing to join Appital at launch. When building out its platform and technology infrastructure, Appital’s asset management clients provided input into the nominated broker list to be used as execution brokers when Appital goes live. Once onboarded and integrated, the Appital platform will allow them to begin setting their preferences to proactively gain exposure to deal flow which is relevant to them, and nominate brokers for execution.