Virtu explores sale of brokerage unit valued at over $3.5B

Virtu Financial is quietly shopping its brokerage division, with the unit carrying a price tag north of $3.5B. Some valuations have pushed the figure closer to $4B, which would represent a remarkable return on a business Virtu assembled largely through a single acquisition less than a decade ago. The firm, best known as one of the world’s largest electronic market makers, has not publicly confirmed the exploration. But the talks, first surfaced through market sources on August 20, suggest Virtu is weighing whether its future looks leaner and more focused. From acquisition to potential exit The brokerage unit traces its roots primarily to Virtu’s March 2019 purchase of Investment Technology Group, better known as ITG. That deal cost approximately $1B. ITG brought agency execution services, workflow technology, and analytics tools into Virtu’s orbit. The idea at the time was diversification: Virtu wanted to be more than just the firm that makes fractions of a penny on millions of trades per day. It wanted to offer institutional clients a broader suite of services. A sale at the reported valuation range would mean Virtu roughly quadrupled the value of what it paid for the ITG business...