Seeking to replace manual and opaque work with an automated one, in the bookbuilding process when buy-side firms seek out fitting terms to trade illiquid equity positions with each other, a collaboration between solution startup Appital and market platform Turquoise has landed a big first client.

With 12 trillion NOK in assets, Norges Bank Investment Management is a prestigious catch for any provider. Known popularly as “the oil fund”, it is the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund.

Calling itself “the world’s first algorithmic bookbuilding platform”, London-based Appital presents the oil fund as the first of its new “Appital Turquoise BookBuilder” service, all according to a press release.

“This is the first buyside to buyside bookbuilding platform to give institutional investors the opportunity to proactively source liquidity. By bringing a historically highly manual and opaque process into an automated, electronic platform, they gain control over the entire bookbuilding process. Buyside firms benefit from liquidity discovery and price formation opportunities for illiquid equity positions, as well as the ability to execute large volumes on the regulated Turquoise MTF, often in multiple days’ ADV, with minimal market impact or risk of price erosion,” Appital promises.

Pan-European multilateral trading facility Turquoise, owned by the London Stock Exchange Group, will host the resulting trades.