Sydney-headquartered Invast Global went under a massive branding overhaul and had been rebranding to 26 Degrees, the company officially announced today (Friday). The rebranded firm will focus on the prime brokerage market.

Invast Global Rebrands to 26 Degrees

The new name, 26 Degrees, has been creatively chosen to refer to the 26th-degree latitude that runs parallel across the broadest breadth of Australia, dividing it from North to South.

In an interview with Finance Magnates, 26 Degrees' CEO, Gavin White said that the company felt compelled to rebrand due to the exponential growth of its institutional prime services business in the last five years.

"The prime brokerage global market is in a state of flux," said White. "This has highlighted the strong position of prime broking independents such as 26 Degrees to step up and support these underserviced market segments."

A Strategic Branding Overhaul

The rebranding came as a strategic decision for the company. White pointed out the opportunities in the market when Credit Swiss collapsed and other giants like Jeffries exited.

The prime services market is estimated to be about US$20 billion. The growth opportunities in this market are immense as global investment banking giants account for 92.5 percent, estimated to be around US $18.5 billion.

According to 26 Degrees, the estimated revenue from clients with AUM under $100 million is US$3.2 billion or 15.8 percent of the industry, and the company will target this particular market.

"The banks were being forced out after the global financial crisis due to regulatory reforms," White told Finance Magnates. "It pushed banks out of a very lucrative industry which is prime services servicing broker-dealers."

"With this, a lot of brokers are finding it very difficult to get the services of a prime broker. The hedge fund industry was also in the same position. The prime brokers are pulling away due to the regulatory forms. So we have built in a business to take advantage of that."

26 Degrees is owned by a Japanese parent, which has an extensive presence in the brokerage space. The newly branded company further expects to leverage its Japanese parent's reputation in the market to gain clients.

A Multicultural Organization

Previously known as Invast Global, 26 Degrees is a global brand with a physical presence in many countries.

Explaining the multicultural work environment, White said: "Australia is a very multicultural company country. There's nothing that defines Australians, and that makes it easier for us to interact with different cultures. We've got an office in Cyprus. There are no cultural differences there. The same thing follows in London."

"However, Japan is a little bit different cause it is a different culture, but we were able to deal with that."

On top of that, he added: "We've got two staff now from our Cyprus office in the Australian office for the next month. We've got people going to Japan and London as well. This is one of the things that our staff really like about our company."

The workforce at 26 Degrees is also very young. White revealed that 60 percent of the company's staff are under the age of 30 years.

"It's very much a millennial," he said. "We've gone for like a really cool, ten old people at the top and interns at the bottom for the last ten years. Now, some of those interns are at C-level. So, the whole company's infused with that millennial sort of attitude."