FX week in review: Markets.com/Finalto sale, exec moves at Pepperstone, Trading.com, FP Markets
It was a busy week of news in the FX industry as we complete the first month of 2021, and once again FNG was pleased to break all of the top stories that dominated the headlines – including Playtech entering into final negotiations to sell its financials division consisting of Markets.com and the recently rebranded Finalto B2B FX business.
Who is buying Markets.com and Finalto?
How much have they agreed to pay?
Also this week we were pleased to report exclusively about senior hires at firms ranging from Pepperstone to Trading.com to FP Markets.
Some of the top FX industry news stories to appear this past week on FNG included:
Exclusive: Playtech finalizing Markets.com / Finalto sale. FNG Exclusive: FNG has learned that online gaming tech company Playtech has entered into the final stage of negotiations to sell its financials unit, which includes the Markets.com Retail FX brokerage and the Finalto (formerly called TradeTech Group) B2B FX activity. Finalto essentially comprises two businesses that Playtech acquired for a total of about $270 million four years ago, CFH Group and Alpha Capital Markets. We had reported exclusively about the planned sale back in August, breaking the story that Playtech had engaged investment bank UBS to find a buyer for the Financials division. Who is the buyer? How much are they paying?
Exclusive: ex FXDD COO Lubo Kaneti joins Trading.com ahead of US launch. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that Lubomir (Lubo) Kaneti has joined Trading.com, ahead of Trading.com’s planned launch in the US later this year. Mr. Kaneti, based in New York, will serve as Trading.com’s Chief Commercial Officer, in charge of business development, sales and marketing. Trading.com is a brand owned by Cyprus based Trading Point Holdings Ltd, whose main Retail FX brand is XM.com. The group acquired the Trading.com url about two years ago, and has been using it somewhat (and fairly quietly) in the UK, but essentially has been waiting to use it mainly to penetrate the US online trading market.
Exclusive: Richard Elston on the launch of CMC Markets Connect. FNG Exclusive Interview… After we reported last week that CMC Markets had rebranded its institutional B2B FX arm as CMC Markets Connect, we thought it would be a good opportunity to speak to the man behind the business, CMC’s Group Head of Institutional Richard Elston, and find out more about the rebrand and what’s ahead. Did CMC ever consider an “independent” brand name and identity for its B2B unit? What’s changing, and challenging, in today’s world of FX and CFD liquidity? How has the “COVID era” changed the business? We posed these questions and a whole lot more to Richard Elston. Here is what he had to say.
IG Group shares drop 13% since announcing $1B tastytrade acquisition. While it is impossible to measure the success of a major corporate move after just two days (especially when that “move” won’t actually take place for a few more months), the markets don’t seem to like IG Group’s expansion into the US online trading market by virtue of a $1 billion takeover of tastytrade. IG announced the tastytrade deal on Thursday morning, at the same time as it released its fiscal 2021 first half results. The results, as far as we can tell, were ahead of expectations. IG not only didn’t see a drop-off from its record results in the previous six months (as have a number of other leading UK and European online brokers such as Plus500 and Swissquote), but actually exceeded those numbers.
OANDA introduces new payment solution for companies in North America. OANDA, a major provider of multi-asset trading services and currency data and analytics, has joined forces with Currencycloud to deliver a new international money transfer service to companies in North America. Called OANDA FX Payments, the new solution has been made possible through a joint collaboration with Shift Connect. OANDA FX Payments enables corporate clients to make cross-border payments in 35 currencies, quickly and easily through a safe and reliable online platform. The solution helps companies reduce the cost of international transactions while hedging their currency risk and protecting their bottom line.
Among the top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week were:
❑ Exclusive: FP Markets hires ex HotForex head of marketing Kyriakos Georgis.
❑ Exclusive: Pepperstone hires IG’s Lawrence Jones as Head of Digital Marketing.
❑ Broadridge hires Germán Soto Sanchez as Senior VP of Corporate Strategy.
❑ June Felix buys 6,300 shares in IG Group.
❑ Tradeweb Markets hires James Sun as Head of Asia.