Wikipedia

Susquehanna International Group

Susquehanna International Group, LLP (SIG) is a privately held, global trading and technology firm. SIG comprises a number of affiliated entities specializing in trading and proprietary investments in equities, fixed income, energy, commodity, index and derivative products, private equity and venture capital, research, customer trading and institutional sales.

Susquehanna International Group, LLP
Company typePrivately held (LLP)
Industry
FoundedMay 1987; 37 years ago (May 1987)
Founders
HeadquartersBala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Area served
14 offices worldwide (as of 2022)
Products
RevenueIncrease $7.2 billion (2024) [1]
Number of employees
3,000
Websitesig.com

SIG is a specialist or DPM (designated primary market maker) in approximately 600 equity options and 45 index options on the CBOE, AMEX, PHLX, and ISE, including equities such as Google, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, GE, PepsiCo, and Microsoft, and indices such as Nasdaq and Russell 2000 options.

The firm employs more than 3,000 people in offices across North America (New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, Stamford), Australia (Sydney), Europe (Dublin, London) and Asia (Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo).[2][3]

History

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SIG was founded in May 1987 by six entrepreneurs, including Arthur Dantchik and Jeff Yass, who met in the late 1970s at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where they gathered to play cards.[4] The company was named after the Susquehanna River, which flows near their alma mater.[5] By October 1988, the firm had 100 employees and was located above the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.[6] The company generated $30 million in annual revenue in its first year,[4] having earned millions through put options it had purchased prior to the Black Monday stock market crash.[7][5] Susquehanna's profits in the late 1990s often topped $1 billion. By then, the company was trading convertible bonds, commodity options, index options, and was a major exchange-traded fund market maker.[5]

In 1996, SIG founded Heights Capital Management in San Francisco, which focuses on PIPE investments in healthcare and technology.[7]

In 2005, SIG launched SIG China, its venture capital operation in China. As of 2022, the firm had invested in over 350 companies with over 70 exits.[8][non-primary source needed]

In 2006, SIG launched Susquehanna Growth Equity, which invests in software and information services, and offers growth stage funding to companies operating in the U.S. and Israel.[9] At this point, SIG had grown to over 12 offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.[10]

The same year, the firm invested in Kuxun, a search engine company, which was sold three years later, in 2009, to Expedia.[11]

SIG experienced a major downturn during the 2007–2008 financial crisis but rebounded quickly, benefitting from the federal government's bailout of the financial system.[12]

The firm invested $5 million into ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, in 2012 when ByteDance was founded. As of 2020, its stake in ByteDance represented 15 percent of its fully-diluted capitalization table and was valued over $15 billion on paper.[13]

In 2013, SIG acquired G1 Execution Services LLC (G1X) from E-Trade.[14]

In 2014, SIG expanded its venture capital operations to Japan.

In 2017, SIG launched Susquehanna Private Capital, LLC, which focuses on buyouts of U.S. middle market companies in the aerospace, industrials, consumer, healthcare, and business and government services industries.[15]

Also in 2017, SIG established Nellie Analytics, a Dublin-based sports betting company.[16]

As of 2018, the firm traded about seven percent of U.S. ETF volume and more than $1.5 trillion in ETFs globally on an annual basis.[4]

As of 2022, the firm had 14 offices worldwide.

Affiliates

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  • Susquehanna Financial Group (SFG): SIG's institutional broker-dealer business, which provides order execution and trading flow services, and equity research coverage of nearly 200 companies.
  • Susquehanna Structured Capital: Structured capital group that provides debt and structured equity investments to middle and lower-middle market companies as well as commercial and multi-family real estate projects.[17]
  • Susquehanna Foundation: The corporate foundation of SIG. The foundation is organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and contributes to school reform causes.[18]
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Allegations of front-running client accounts

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In 2009, the California Public Employees' Retirement System led a class action lawsuit against SIG and other broker-dealers, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Van der Moolen, and others, for improperly executing trades for their dealer accounts ahead of their clients. The lawsuit reached a settlement in 2012, when the defendants, including SIG, agreed to a $18.5 million settlement.[19]

Allegations of spoofing stock

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In 2022, Northwest Biotherapeutics claimed in a suit filed in a Manhattan federal court that SIG, Citadel Securities, Virtu Financial, and other market making firms engaged in repeated spoofing that drove Northwest's share price downward.[20] The case was dismissed in 2024.[21]

References

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  1. ^ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index". Bloomberg. 21 March 2024.
  2. ^ "Susquehanna International Group (SIG) Graduate Programmes". Prosple Australia/GradAustralia. Retrieved 2024-03-21.
  3. ^ "SIG Locations". sig.com. Retrieved 2024-03-21.
  4. ^ a b c Massa, Annie (November 20, 2018). "The Poker Aces Playing a Key Hand in the $5 Trillion ETF Market". Bloomberg Markets.
  5. ^ a b c Gara, Antoine (April 10, 2021). "How Trader Jeff Yass Parlayed Poker And Horse Race Handicapping Into A $12 Billion Fortune". Forbes.
  6. ^ Kuntz, Mary (October 16, 1998). "A start-up firm thrives despite the crash". The Washington Post.
  7. ^ a b Megaw, Nicholas (October 20, 2024). "How Susquehanna's Jeff Yass mastered the options game". Financial Times.
  8. ^ "About Us".
  9. ^ "SIG Venture Capital".
  10. ^ "Susquehanna launches US private equity arm". 3 January 2013.
  11. ^ "The Philadelphia Inquirer". 17 January 2022.
  12. ^ Elliot, Justin; Eisinger, Jesse; Kiel, Paul; Ernsthausen, Jeff; Burke, Doris (June 21, 2022). "Meet the Billionaire and Rising GOP Mega-Donor Who's Gaming the Tax System". ProPublica.
  13. ^ Winkler, Rolfe; Yang, Jing; Osipovich, Alexander (2020-10-01). "Secretive High-Speed Trading Firm Hits Jackpot With TikTok". WSJ. Retrieved 2024-04-25.
  14. ^ Baker, Nick (October 23, 2013). "E*Trade Sells Market Making Unit to Susquehanna for $75 Million". Bloomberg.
  15. ^ "Susquehanna International Group, LLP Announces Launch of Susquehanna Private Capital, LLC" (Press release).
  16. ^ Chellel, Kit; Massa, Annie (October 30, 2017). "A Well-Known Quant Firm Is Looking for Traders Who Want to Bet on Sports". Bloomberg.
  17. ^ "About".
  18. ^ "Susquehanna Foundation".
  19. ^ "Specialist firms agree to $18.5 mln settlement in class action". Reuters.
  20. ^ "Citadel Securities, Virtu Accused of Spoofing Biotech Stock".
  21. ^ Perera, Katryna (February 15, 2024). "Citadel Securities, Others Beat Biotech Spoofing Suit, For Now". Law360.
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