MILAN, July 9 (Reuters) - Revenue and profits at ION

Platform, the holding company of privately held, global

financial software and data provider ION Group, rose in the

second quarter, with debt also up in the period, data released

to investors showed.

* Founded by Italian-born Andrea Pignataro and a major

global supplier of trading, treasury and risk management

software, it streamlined its large debt load in 2025 by swapping

bonds issued by its several businesses with ION Platform's

notes.

* Data shared with investors, which ION declined to comment

on, showed ION Platform's revenue rose by roughly 5% both on a

monthly and yearly basis to $634.5 million.

* Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes,

depreciation, and amortization) rose 11% quarter-on-quarter to

$448.2 million, with net income nearly doubling to $150.1

million.

* On a 12-month basis, pro-forma, adjusted EBITDA was up 3%

at $1.86 billion.

* Net debt rose by around $110 million to $11 billion, with

the net leverage ratio - which measures debt in relation to core

profits - edging down to 6.53 times in adjusted terms from 6.79

times.

* ION Platform drew $200 million from an existing credit

line to cover seasonal cash needs, offsetting half of the figure

with debt buybacks and cash transfer to the parent company.

* Earlier this year, ION's debt was caught up in a market

selloff that hit software companies, as investors questioned

whether artificial intelligence would disrupt incumbent

providers.

* Pignataro, a former Salomon Brothers trader with a PhD in

mathematics, said in a February essay that AI assisted employees

in software companies rather than replacing them. The bigger

risk from AI, he argued, is that it could eventually take over

some of the work now carried out by professionals rather than

that of their software providers.