Baltic sets sail for first takeover

THE Baltic Exchange, the world's oldest and biggest shipping market, has made a further leap into the electronic age with the £1m acquisition of a software firm - its first takeover.

The Exchange is set to buy Strategic Software, a leading supplier of software systems to the shipping industry. The deal marks the next phase of the Exchange's plans to build a fully-fledged electronic trading platform and is believed to be its first corporate acquisition since being set up in 1744.

Internet-based systems have been available to Exchange members only since 1997 but in August last year it launched balticexchange.com, an electronic trading 'floor' available to members the world over. The new system will gradually replace the telephone, fax and e-mail as the way in which most business is conducted.

Baltic chief executive Jim Buckley said: 'We are confident our ability to develop a new suite of software, while enhancing the level and quality of our support for our existing electronic platform, will make our products and services extremely attractive.'