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Report: Barclays looking to sell auto-options trading business to US-based GTS

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Report: Barclays looking to sell auto-options trading business to US-based GTS

Barclays PLC is in discussions to sell its automated options trading business in New York to U.S.-based electronic market maker GTS Securities LLC following a call from activist investor Edward Bramson to shrink its investment banking operations, unnamed sources told Bloomberg News.

Based in New York, the Automated Volatility Trading business buys and sells options to offer liquidity in the market and is headed by Kirill Gelman, according to the Aug. 29 report. The talks have reportedly reached an advanced stage although it remains unclear if a deal would be signed.

The business contributed to the roughly £984 million that Barclays booked as revenues from its equities trading operations in the first half, Bloomberg noted.

A deal would add to GTS' expansion efforts, having bought the automated exchange-traded funds and wholesale over-the-counter market-making businesses of Cantor Fitzgerald LP in May. GTS had also bought from Barclays in 2016 a business that oversees NYSE floor trading for major companies, according to the report.