Good morning, and thank you for joining us on short notice to discuss Tradeweb's announcement of its intent to acquire Trumid. After prepared remarks, we will open the call to Q&A.
I'd like to remind you that certain statements in this presentation and during the Q&A relate to future events and expectations, and as such, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Statements related to, among other things, our 2026 credit revenue outlook, our proposed acquisition of Trumid, the anticipated timing of the proposed acquisition, the potential benefits of the proposed acquisition, the expected synergies, including expense synergies of the proposed acquisition, the estimated tax assets, our plans, objectives, expectations, and intentions regarding Trumid, our and Trumid's potential future performance, including the projected Trumid financial information, and the expected impact of the proposed acquisition on us and our growth rate and adjusted diluted EPS, the industry and markets in which we and Trumid operate, as well as our other expectations, beliefs, plans, strategies, objectives, prospects, and assumptions, and other future events are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements is contained in the accompanying investor presentation and our periodic reports filed with the SEC.
In addition, on today's call, we will reference certain projected Trumid financial information, certain non-GAAP measures, as well as certain market and industry data. References to historical Trumid revenue in the prepared remarks and during the Q&A are adjusted on a non-GAAP basis to exclude the impact of certain dealer equity incentive arrangements and other dealer incentives that were previously in place and no longer apply as of the first half of 2026. Important additional information regarding such projected Trumid financial information, non-GAAP measures, and market industry data, including sources, is in the accompanying investor presentation.
Thanks, Ashley. Good morning, everyone. Today we're announcing that Tradeweb has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Trumid for a purchase price of approximately $1.97 billion, which includes $1.75 billion for the business and approximately $220 million for tax assets being acquired. Trumid is an electronic credit platform that leads in grey markets and dealer workflows, and it is highly complementary to our business. The transaction meets the financial bar we set for every acquisition. We expect it to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share in the first full year after close, without any revenue synergies related to new cross-sell opportunities and to our earnings growth rate. Sara will walk through the terms shortly. Reflecting on our journey at the time of our IPO, we were known as a rates platform with bold ambitions in credit. Since then, we have competed and differentiated.
Credit has morphed into one of our most important growth engines and is on track to exceed $500 million in global revenues for the first time in 2026. We got there by staying incredibly close to our clients, understanding how they want to trade, and then building a multidimensional liquidity pool and a spectrum of protocols. As we look ahead, we believe credit will continue to remain one of the largest markets with a long runway for growth. TRACE volumes have grown 10% annually since 2014. This growth has been driven by rising corporate profitability, advancing technology, and an increasingly sophisticated client base. Together, these forces have combined to catalyze electronification and increase turnover velocity. Package trading, algorithmic pricing, and automated execution have moved from the edges of the market to the center of it, and we see that every day in our own volumes.
With that said, our biggest competitor in credit and across our markets isn't another platform, it's still the phone, and that tells you how much opportunity is still in front of us. Every time we make trading easier, reduce complexity, or bring buyers and sellers together in a better way, we have an opportunity to move another piece of this market electronic. Grey markets are particularly interesting to us. This is where a bond's life and price discovery begins before it has been officially issued. It's a meaningful market today comprising about 5% of TRACE, but much of the workflow is still manual, running through spreadsheets, chats, and voice. That's exactly the kind of market that Tradeweb has spent nearly three decades helping to transform. We think timing is compelling.
With a multi-year refinancing and AI infrastructure cycle on the horizon, we believe the new issue market will remain front and center. Clients increasingly want better price discovery and more efficient execution around new issues. As electronification and velocity increases, we believe our opportunity expands. Trumid started in a way that feels very familiar to us. Dealers saw a real market problem and funded and worked with the team to solve it. In Trumid's case, that problem was how do you find point-in-time liquidity in grey markets? Their answer was Swarms, a protocol that brings a group of participants together on the same bond at the same moment throughout the day. From there, Trumid became one of the innovative platforms in the space and expanded into dealer RFQ and Attributed Trading, protocols that complement our own. The other thing that really matters to us is the team.
We have known and respected the Trumid team for years, and we began informal conversations early this year. As we spent more time together, it became clear that Mike and the team share our vision of the credit markets. Many of them have sat in the seats of our dealer and buy-side clients, and they bring a real focus on innovation. Relationships matter in this business, and we are thrilled to welcome them to the Tradeweb family.
Looking ahead, Trumid advances our credit strategy in three ways. First, it extends our offering to the full life cycle of a bond. Grey markets are where a bond's trading life begins, and with Trumid, we can serve clients from those first moments of price discovery all the way through the secondary market. We have spent decades taking successful protocols into new markets, and we plan to introduce Swarms across our global credit network.
Second, it enhances our position with two client groups that keep growing in importance. Hedge funds are at the forefront of systematic trading and credit using strategies they have run in rates and equities for years, and Trumid has built a loyal following in that community. Dealers are automating more of their flow and increasingly starting trades, not just responding to inquiries. Third, it lets us move faster. We would otherwise have spent resources building and scaling these capabilities ourselves. Instead, we can put those resources toward our next frontiers in credit, emerging markets, algorithmic trading, and block trading. On data, our philosophy is unchanged. Respect the privilege of access to client trading data, apply the right monetization guardrails, and improve execution outcomes. AI is becoming a meaningful part of how credit trades.
Our TARA AI chatbot turns our data into real-time insight for clients, and Trumid Smart Voice automates the trades that still start on the phone. Trumid's unique data from the earliest trading in a bond will help make Ai-Price and TARA sharper and our clients' execution better. We are confident in our ability to integrate Trumid and deliver on this opportunity. With that, let me turn it over to Sara to walk through the transaction in more detail.
Thanks, Billy, and good morning, everyone. Billy covered why Trumid fits our strategy. I will walk through the economics of this transaction and how it also meets our financial objectives, including being accretive in the first year post-closing. The consideration has two parts, a net purchase price of approximately $1.75 billion and a tax asset valued at approximately $220 million. The $1.75 billion net purchase price represents 19.4 times fully synergized 2026 adjusted EBITDA. The transaction will be financed with $1.89 billion in cash and $82 million with equity for a total purchase price of $1.97 billion. The $82 million equity component reflects Trumid's incoming management rolling the majority of their consideration into Tradeweb equity, which will be subject to an ongoing lockup that will expire two and a half years after closing.
The transaction is targeted to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Trumid has grown revenue from 2022 through 2025 at an approximately 30% CAGR. That momentum has continued in 2026, with run-rate revenue for Trumid tracking at approximately $150 million, which if achieved, would be up more than 25% year-over-year as the platform and its protocols continue to gain traction with dealers and hedge fund clients. Profitability has improved alongside that growth, with Trumid's projected adjusted EBITDA margin improving at an average of 500 basis points annually in 2025 and 2026, with margins tracking at approximately 20% for this year. The transaction clears the financial bar we have laid out. We expect the acquisition to be accretive to adjusted EPS within the first full year after closing, with the level of accretion increasing as the remaining expense synergies are realized.
We are confident in our ability to complete the integration over 18 months and expect to generate $60 million in run-rate expense synergies, with 70% realized in the first full year after closing and 95% in year two. Our accretion assumption is underpinned by 10% revenue growth for Trumid annually. We use this growth forecast for purposes of underwriting the deal, and it does not account for the current strong new issue and secondary volume environment. It also assumes approximately 400 basis points of standalone adjusted EBITDA margin expansion annually and reflects $65 million of foregone annual net interest income as we expect to fund the transaction with cash on hand. Finally, while not baked into our accretion, we clearly see the potential to generate revenue synergies by introducing Trumid's differentiated protocols across our global product and client network.
Let me spend a moment on the tax asset, which we believe is a notable feature of this deal. As part of the transaction, we are acquiring tax assets worth approximately $220 million on a present value basis, representing roughly $345 million of cash tax savings expected over time. The benefit has a few components. Approximately 75% of the benefit comes from a new stepped-up tax basis in Trumid's underlying assets created by this transaction. The remainder comes from inheriting the existing tax basis of certain entities interest in Trumid and net operating losses. Altogether, these tax benefits will offset future taxable income and are expected to reduce our cash taxes over a number of years. This will provide a meaningful benefit to free cash flow, with 40% of the gross value expected to be realized within five years. Stepping back, we believe this is a compelling investment for Tradeweb.
We believe we're acquiring a business with attractive growth prospects, significant opportunities to scale and increase profitability while creating meaningful value for shareholders through earnings accretion and stronger cash flow generation. As we look ahead, our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. We will continue to prioritize organic investment in the business, followed by strategic acquisitions and investments, share repurchases, and a growing dividend. With that, let me turn the call back over to Billy.
Thanks, Sara. Based on our previously disclosed quarterly volumes and pricing, we believe we've produced another strong revenue and volume growth quarter, and those trends have continued into October. Strong months are welcome, but we run this business for the next decade, not the next quarter. Global debt markets keep growing and remain central to funding the world economy, and technology is advancing faster than at any point in our history. These two forces drive our opportunity. You don't win markets simply by putting two companies together. We have to execute, integrate thoughtfully, and keep innovating. Most importantly, we have to keep earning our clients' trust and business every day. The way credit trades is changing, and we intend to lead that change. With Trumid, we can serve a bond from its first trade through the rest of its life.
That brings us one step closer to a market where every trade at every stage can be done electronically. With that, I will turn it back to Ashley for your questions.
Thanks, Billy. Operator, you can now take our first question.
Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question at this time, you will need to press star one one on your touch-tone telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, simply press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question coming from the line of Craig Siegenthaler with Bank of America. Your line is now open.
Good morning, Billy and team. Congrats on the deal.
Craig.
Starting off with a big picture one from us. Why is Tradeweb the right owner of this asset? Because Trumid was on a nice growth trajectory as of yesterday. We are also curious on the synergies of putting Swarms and Attributed Trading next to your leading line of protocols, and also what this deal could mean for pricing over the long term too.
Question, Craig. Thank you, as always. Why are we the right owner of the asset? Why are they the right asset for us? Why is this a strategic fit? That is the right question. Why do we think that this is going to work? I think it is going to work from our perspective in a very straightforward way. To start with, I would say because we share, I think from my perspective, I would say like the same ethos and mentality. You have to always ask yourself the question, what separates you as a company? What is the thing that defines you? As you know very well, Tradeweb is a technology company. Trumid is a technology company. But I think from an ethos perspective, for both companies, depth of knowledge really matters. That matters across products. I think it matters across client segments.
I think it does something really important, which it allows both companies to engage with clients in creative ways in doing something that is fundamentally important, which is solving problems. I think you have to have a sense of humility, to know that you need to listen to clients, and do something which is very important, which is build trust. Then the third thing, which is you have to be commercial, and commercial to transform what you are hearing from your clients into something that is a viable product. That is the ethos. When you get into viable product, to your question, I think that transitions to something which matters a lot, which is, do you believe really in building tools that the full life cycle of the market find ultimate value in?
From a product perspective, as you know very well, we've made our kind of innovation bones, obviously, in secondary trading. You've heard a lot from us over the years, Craig, around portfolio trading, et cetera. We've gone from basically an afterthought in credit to close to $500 million in credit revenue, by being innovative in secondary trading. Trumid has kind of, I think in a super interesting way from our perspective, they've lived, and created trust, and they've innovated around obviously making the market in grey markets more available to a wider audience, making that marketplace more transparent and more efficient. I think in a very important way, I think Tradeweb has largely defined ourselves as kind of best in class, as you know very well, with, I think like the asset manager base.
I think that's a pretty straightforward statement. As Trumid has pursued, I think, innovation in new issue, and as they've led with tools and protocols that have brought, I think, the systematic players into the equation in very strong ways. We like that combination of clients. The largest, most important asset managers in the world, and these most sophisticated systematic hedge fund players. We love that combination of clients, especially, I think, when you do something that's probably critical, which is when you share the mindset, and understanding really bank behavior, and what matters to the market makers, which I think has been, from our perspective, I think a core strength, and really a core strength of both companies. Bottom line, I would say is that we are obviously very excited about this acquisition.
I will say this very clearly, we look forward to welcoming the Trumid team, closing the deal, and updating you as we execute on our integration plan. Thanks for the question.
Thank you, Billy.
Thank you. Our next question in queue coming from the line of Christian Bolu with Autonomous Research. Your line is now open.
Good morning, Billy and Sara. Trumid has a strong track record of successfully building businesses organically. Your current credit business is a testament to that. We would love to understand or get a better sense of why you chose to spend almost $2 billion on Trumid rather than build this organically.
Yeah, it is a good question, Christian. How are you today? As CEO sometimes you wear a bunch of different hats. I think one of the most important hats that I wear is obviously, with the executive team, pushing the company to be the most ambitious company that we can be. We ask ourselves those questions around build versus buy, all the time, as you can imagine. The roots of Tradeweb, Christian, as you know very well, we have largely gotten here as builders of marketplaces. I think that is something that is core to kind of who we are. That being said, also as you know, this is, I think, and Ashley would know for sure, I think this is our fourth acquisition, since I have been CEO of the company. I do believe very strongly that you can and need to do both.
I think with this Trumid deal, in the most interesting way, I think it actually showcases both skills. With this deal, obviously we will acquire I think something very important, which is two unique protocols. Their Swarms protocol and their Attributed Trading protocol, best in class and unique. We will acquire, I think, something that I mentioned, from Craig's question, which is deep penetration into the hedge fund community, which we view as critically important. Therefore, we will acquire scaled protocols and networks. As we acquire these things, we are not going to lose sight of something that we are very excited about, which is what we get to build going forward with our new partners. Which is things like building more insight and analytics, building the electronification framework of voice-centric flows through AI, auto-spreading, AiEX.
Ultimately, I think, in a very important way, continuing to build probably the most important thing that you can do in the market, which is client trust. We feel really good about this combination, in part because I think it's allowing us to exercise the two most important muscles that ambitious companies need to have. Appreciate your question, and thanks very much.
Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Ken Worthington with JPMorgan. Your line is now open.
Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking the question. Can you walk us through the accretion math and the rationale for the assumptions that you're using? Maybe first, how did you end up at the 10% growth in your forecast versus the 25%-30% historic growth you highlighted in the prepared remarks? Then looking at the 400 basis points of margin improvement, what does this contemplate for your contingent investment in Trumid, as you generate the cost synergies?
Sure. Hey, Ken, how are you?
Hi.
Let me take that. I think a couple things. The way we are thinking about it, 10% is a starting point for the standalone business as it exists today. As a reminder, and we covered this in the remarks, that does not include any of the revenue synergies related to the new cross-selling opportunities, such as taking Swarms global, which we are extremely enthusiastic about. When we thought about it, on one hand, Trumid has benefited from a smaller revenue base, very strong issuance environment. From an underwriting perspective, we did not want to underwrite this deal by simply just assuming history repeats itself, and the current environment, which is extremely strong, is the go-forward long-term environment. Issuance, as you know, is very hard to predict quarter to quarter.
When we factored our underwriting case, even against a more muted backdrop, we still feel like Trumid can grow 10% a year, and that is relative to, as we have talked about, 25%+ for 2026. On the other hand, the cyclical backdrop, and Billy talked about this, looks very strong, and the issuance pipeline does look robust. Structurally, we believe in the electronification of credit markets. The turnover velocity still has a lot of room to run, particularly with systematic trading and ETFs that are continuing to proliferate. If issuance stays strong and electronification and velocity keep moving the way we expect, none of that is really baked into that 10% assumption in our numbers, and we see real upside to both Trumid's ability to compete in grey markets and grow secondary revenue, which has been an increasing source of their growth.
If I try to walk down through accretion, you start with Trumid's revenue, which we talked about tracking to $150 million this year and the 10% growth rate, and then we will work our way back down to net income. The core EBITDA for Trumid is tracking around 20%, expanding that 400 basis points of margin a year that we talked about, plus $60 million of run rate synergies, which we have talked about, and 70% of that, so fairly quickly, we expect to realize in the first year. So within the first year, you can get to a pretty attractive net income number. Those synergies are on top of the core margin. The offset to that is, we expect net interest income to fall by about $65 million after funding the deal from the cash portion.
That should get you to pro forma net income, along with your standalone assumptions for Tradeweb, and clearly lines up to an accretive transaction pretty quickly, which only gets more accretive as those synergies get fully realized. The only other thing I would point out is while that accretion fully factors in the cost of acquiring the tax assets, it does not actually include the benefit of the cash tax savings that can be an additional incremental benefit in EPS. So that tax asset, as a reminder, provides tangible cash tax savings over the future years of about $220 million, of which $135 million is in the first five years. So when you think about that cash savings, it accelerates our free cash flow conversion, and then it can provide NII upside each year as those cash savings compound. Again, that part is not even factored in the accretion.
So overall, I'd say we've built a relatively conservative set of assumptions into our expectations, and there are quite a few sources of upside, including mostly if that cyclical backdrop remains as strong as we expect it to be.
Great. Thank you for that.
Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Dan Fannon with Jefferies. Your line is now open.
Thanks. Good morning. Billy, was hoping you could expand upon your comments on why this is the right time to buy, given where we are in the new issue cycle. Then can you talk about how durable Trumid's growth is away from the new issue market in other products and asset classes?
Yeah. Dan, how are you?
Good.
As you know, it's been almost like one catalyst after the next over the last few years, from tariffs to geopolitical acceleration of the AI hyperscalers, and we think the catalyst wave will continue going forward. I start with, I think we're making this bet with the credit markets in a really strong spot. Fundamentally, we think, and we'll make this call, that the new issue market is a really good neighborhood from our perspective to invest into. If you take a half a step back for a second, and you've heard me say this, Dan, I don't think it's by any stretch an overstatement to say that one of the most consequential secular trends happening right now in finance is the application of technology into professional markets, period. To your point, look, we know this.
Rates are going to kind of go up and down. By the way, that's good for our macro business. But rates are going to go up and down. Issuance is going to have its kind of peak moments, and there's going to be some obviously volatility around that. But if you believe, I think, in two things, which is the force of technology impact in marketplaces, plus that markets will continue to grow, our opportunity, by definition, is going to compound alongside of this transformation. That's the thing ultimately that makes us quite excited about this.
As we've kind of paid very close attention to our new partners at Trumid, back to your question about durability, obviously, we've been well aware of the impact that they've had in our neighborhood of secondary trading, and we feel like we are onboarding best in class around venue and marketplace, and we feel quite good about the durability of their business model. Thanks a lot for your question.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Ben Budish with Barclays. Your line is now open.
Hey, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Sara, during your prepared remarks, you talked a little bit about the hedge fund opportunity and about revenue, potential cross-sell opportunities. Curious if you could give us a bit more color on the current overlap between your customer base and theirs. I am wondering if there are any risks of dyssynergies. Are there any instances where you have a customer who is using both you and Trumid, but not a separate provider which could open up some opportunities? Any color you can give on sort of the state of the current client overlap would be helpful. Thank you.
Sure. Hey, Ben. I would say, look, anytime two platforms come together, some flow gets rationalized, but we have looked at that thoughtfully, and we think the overlap here is pretty small given the new capabilities and differentiated client relationships between Tradeweb and Trumid. Importantly, I would say these impacts are already reflected in any of our 10% forward growth assumptions. But maybe a few components just to kind of dig into why we believe that. I would say the first thing is the complementary nature of the client bases, which Billy just highlighted, is one of the things we are most excited about. Historically, we have scaled in U.S. credit through achieving greater penetration with asset managers than hedge funds. Trumid's client base really leans the other way.
They have built an incredibly loyal following against hedge funds, many of which are newer to our platform and trade with us less actively. There's not a lot of overlap there, and we feel on the buy side, we're really adding rather than seeing that overlap. On the dealer side, they're central to both platforms, and Trumid's dealer RFQ and grey markets activity should deepen the liquidity that those dealers bring to our network. RFQ is about 40% of their revenue. Trumid's RFQ is primarily anonymous, so it actually complements our RFQ, which is primarily disclosed rather than overlapping. That's been, as Billy was alluding to, a source of growth for Trumid and helped again by their client strong hedge fund activity.
When we put it together, we're really expecting a broader client network, deeper pools of liquidity, which is good for clients, particularly in grey markets among systematic hedge fund clients. When you factor in the uniqueness of the Trumid protocols, we're really confident that any dyssynergy is already factored into our assumptions.
Okay, great. Thank you, Sara. That's a lot of good color.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Jeff Schmitt with William Blair. Your line is now open.
Hi, thank you. You are targeting $60 million of expense synergies, which is pretty substantial relative to Trumid's, I guess, call it $30 million of standalone EBITDA. Can you provide more detail on where those cost savings will come from, and what is your confidence in executing on them?
Sure. Look, we have underwritten the synergies in this transaction with a very clear line of sight, in a business we know really well. The way I think about it is today, Tradeweb and Trumid each run their own versions of a number of things across technology, product, sales, and corporate functions. Once we combine, for the most part, we really only need one of each. When you bring the two teams together on one platform and one integrated operating model, that is really going to be the biggest share of synergies. That said, and I do not take this lightly, we are a growth company. We add more than 100 roles a year, and where there is overlap, our first instinct is going to be to find great people in new places to contribute across Tradeweb's broader platform.
Aside from that component, which by far is the biggest component of the synergies, the rest is really straightforward. Two companies means two sets of contracts for clearing data, other vendors, professional fees, and we will consolidate those and pay for one instead of two. On the technology side, our guiding principle is really focused around clients and client choice. We want to give them more ways to trade, less friction on one platform. Where Trumid's RFQ and portfolio trading workflows mirror ours, we are going to bring that into one existing protocol so our clients get the same functionality, but through one connection instead of two. On Swarms and Attributed Trading, their flagship protocols, where they are very differentiated, clients will stay using those protocols, and we will make them available just to more clients across our network.
Under the hood, it really is going to run as one unified back-end stack, single client connectivity, entitlement, and surveillance layers. Clients hopefully get more protocol choice with a much simpler setup. When you go through that, and which we have in detail from an integration standpoint, we are very confident in our ability not only to realize the $60 million of run rate expense synergies, but to do so relatively quickly, with 70% being realized in that first year, and as we have said, 95% in year two. This is not a long integration. Hopefully, that helps give you a little bit more color on the expense synergy side.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thanks for the question.
Thank you. Our next question in queue coming from the line of Alexander Blostein with Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.
Hey, Billy. Hey, Sara. Good morning, everybody. Obviously, we've seen a bit of consolidation in market structure universe in the last few months. To what extent are you guys looking to acquire Trumid was impacted at all by ICE MarketAxess deal? Then ultimately now that we'll have two larger scale platform, how do you envision the competitive landscape between the two firms evolve, assuming the deal's closed?
Good question, Alex. My heart rate on my Apple Watch just went up a little bit. I would like to say it impacted us. It did not, though. The only thing I was trying to do, not to make you laugh, was to get the announcement on ICE's earnings morning like they did to us, but we could not quite time that perfectly, but we were trying. As you know, I think very well, we have grown up as a company competing with Bloomberg from day one, and I said on the last earnings call very genuinely with a lot of respect to Jeff and ICE. We embrace competition in the marketplace, and I will say that again, we embrace competition in the marketplace. We think it is good for clients.
And I think we have shown time and again that we can compete, and we can win in tough environments against tough competition, and we believe that. And we feel very strongly that Trumid fits us in ways that I described before. It is about an opportunistically, ultimately, as we described before, I think accelerating our expansion into grey and early markets, I think that is really, really important. And then this concept of entering into a better relationship with our hedge fund world, I think is really, really important, and that is what we wanted. So we believe that this provides us some of the most kind of attractive places ultimately to grow in credit, which is what this deal is about. And Swarms and Attributed Trading will help us ultimately get there. And that is back to kind of building with our new partners post-deal.
From my perspective, I say it to you this way, we love the venue business. We love the marketplace business, and we would rather compete on protocols and workflow and building trust with clients. That is a very, I think, comfortable, in a good way, place for us to be in. The only thing I would say, I think in an interesting way about this deal and what we are getting from this deal is I do feel like it frees us up to do something which is important, which is, I think, lean harder into an area of the business that matters to us, which is EM credit, where we see a lot of room to grow going forward. And we are going to compete there, I think, in good ways. So interesting timing. I think your frame, as always, Alex, is correct.
We look forward to more competition in the space. And as you know, I think it has made us a better company, and we look forward to continuing to get better every day. Thanks for the question.
Thanks, Billy.
Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Chris Allen with KBW. Your line is now open.
Hey, morning, everyone. I think most things have been covered. One thing I'm curious about is, what are the plans for which technology stack will host the combined platform? Just given the integration timeline, I'm just curious how easy it is to shift maybe from the Trumid side Swarms and Attributed Trading over to the Tradeweb side or vice versa if you're going to go back onto the Trumid side. Just curious, any color on that front.
It's a good question. Ashley, you want to take that?
Yeah, I can kick off. Chris, ultimately, as Sara mentioned, it would be one unified back-end stack, and that will be powering a client experience where we will retain what is unique from Trumid as far as their Attributed Trading and Swarms protocols go. Then we will be merging that where we excel, which is RFQ and portfolio trading. So that is sort of the technology experience for the clients. I did not quite catch the second part of your question.
I was just wondering whether it is going to be on the Tradeweb stack or Trumid stack, and how easy it is to shift those protocols at one to the other.
Yeah, it is going in the Tradeweb stack. In terms of, we never say anything is easy, but integration timeline roughly being about 12- 18 months, that gives you some sense of the degree of difficulty. We are pretty confident we can do it without really impacting the client experience.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Michael Cyprys with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.
Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Just curious how this deal affects your appetite for M&A moving forward, and overall cap structure. Thank you.
Yeah, it's a good question, Mike. Talk about being ambitious companies, right? I will say it doesn't change it, right? We believe, and Sara and I talk about this a lot, we believe very strongly the path to do more is to do something really well. I think in a very fundamental way, success begets success, just like liquidity becomes kind of these virtuous cycles inside of marketplaces. They're kind of similar in interesting ways. Our priorities are the same, right? First, invest in organic growth, second, pursue M&A and strategic investments like this one. I think as we continue to show the marketplace that we can do both, opportunities will continue to follow along these avenues.
As you know, as we've had significant growth over the past bunch of years, to be able to grow our organic businesses the way that we have, plus show the marketplace that we are highly capable of doing the right kind of deals with the support that we've gotten, I think means a lot. We're going to continue to be super open-minded around more deals going forward that fit us in the way that you would expect these deals to fit us in ways that we've talked about today. That being said, you'll see, I think, rigorous ownership from the management team on this deal, and we will be focused on the here and the now of making this deal work within a very competitive environment, which is obviously credit.
Maybe I'll just add to that.
Yes.
I think, also just from a financial flexibility, I think this is somewhat straightforward, but with more than $2 billion of cash on the balance sheet, unlevered, very clean balance, no debt on our balance sheet, and we're producing $1 billion of free cash flow a year, and this acquisition only compounds and adds to that. We think we'll have plenty of financial flexibility. I would say, as we think about integration and execution, I think we've proven that we have that muscle. This will be concentrated in the credit space. But as Billy alluded to, this is an ambitious company, so we're going to continue to invest in areas like frontier markets, digital, and have a lot of opportunity in terms of the management bandwidth we've built over the last five years.
Thanks for the question.
Thank you. That's the end of our Q&A session. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Billy Hult for any closing remarks.
Thank you all very much for joining us today. Any follow-up questions, as always, please feel free to reach out to Ashley, Sameer, and the team. We look forward to reuniting shortly. Everyone have a great day, and we appreciate your time. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, that does end the call conference for today. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.