BondBook corporate bond trading site ceases operations

New York, Oct. 29 - BondBook, LLC said it closed its on-line trading platform for U.S. high-yield and investment-grade corporate bonds, saying market participants were unlikely to adapt to the new way of doing business quickly enough.

The company, which had been operating the web site for eight months, added that it has begun laying off employees.

It noted that if conditions become more favorable it may restart.

BondBook said it was launched with the goal of offering easier price discovery, greater price transparency and more reliable access to liquidity. Its electronic trading system offered anonymous participation to all qualified market participants.

But in an announcement Monday, the company said: "Although the potential benefits of such a platform were widely recognized and appreciated, the platform's ambitious model required a degree of behavioral change among market participants that BondBook's sponsors concluded was unlikely to be achieved in an acceptable timeframe given current market conditions."

BondBook is owned by Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., Salomon Smith Barney and UBS Warburg.

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