Icap, the world's biggest inter-dealer broker, has finally tied up its long-awaited deal to buy BrokerTec, the US electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, for a maximum of £181m (€275m).

Michael Spencer, chief executive of Icap, said the deal brings together the world's leading voice broker with one of its leading electronic trading systems, enabling the combined business to offer clients greater liquidity in fixed-income markets and hybrid broking.