(Bloomberg) -- Citadel Securities founder Ken Griffin said the market-making firm won’t go public anytime soon amid the “quilt work” of regulatory burdens put on listed firms.
“We are not focused on going public in the foreseeable future,” Griffin said in an interview at the Economic Club of New York. “We’re focused on building the business, on investing in our future. And we do believe that there are benefits to being private during this period of very, very rapid growth.”
The comments follow Citadel Securities Chief Executive Officer Peng Zhao, who said in October that the prospect of too much regulation in corporate America is deterring firms from going public. He also cited that as a reason why the market-maker wasn’t considering such a move at that time.
“The quilt work of regulatory burdens on public companies has become so great that you’re seeing a rapid diminution in the number of public companies and you’re seeing privately held firms stay private much, much longer,” Griffin said Thursday.
Speculation of the firm’s potential IPO has circulated following its partnership with Silicon Valley investors Sequoia Capital and Paradigm, which made the first outside investment in Griffin’s business in 2022. Sequoia has a history of taking companies public through IPOs.
Instead of going public, Griffin said the market-making firm is focused on investing in the business so it can scale. In the future, capital demands will push the business towards being public, he said, adding that “we’re not there yet.”
Citadel Securities, the sister company to Citadel the hedge fund, was founded in 2002 as a market maker. The trading firm generates billions using algorithms to capture and profit from tiny differences in prices. Its clients include asset managers, banks, broker-dealers, hedge funds, government agencies and public pension programs.
The firm gained more prominence in the era of meme stocks, and has since ramped up its presence across fixed income beyond interest-rate swaps and Treasuries to serve institutional investors in corporate debt trading, starting with investment-grade bonds.
Citadel Securities is also a designated market maker, helping to list companies on the New York Stock Exchange.
In the US, the firm now commands roughly 35% of listed retail stock trades and almost a quarter of all equity trades. Its also added senior talent from the largest institutional banks, including former Goldman Sachs alumni Jim Esposito who joined recently as president.
--With assistance from Sonali Basak.
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