FX week in review: OANDA and Saxo for sale, Spain CFDs restrictions, BUX UK sold, Trive exits UK

Gerald Segal 0 Comments July 21, 2024

It was a week of (fairly wild!) change in the Retail FX and CFDs business, with a lot of M&A activity in the headlines, alongside broker license losses and reinstatements, plus our usual list of senior executive moves.

Some of the most read and commented-on FX/CFD industry news stories to appear over the past seven days on FNG included:

OANDA put up for sale by CVC Capital. UK news outlet Sky News is reporting that Retail FX and CFDs broker OANDA is being actively shopped by private equity firm CVC Capital. CVC acquired OANDA in 2018, at a reported value of $175 million. CVC has reportedly hired investment banking firms Nomura and Santander to oversee the sale. Nomura and Santander are apparently actively marketing OANDA to potential acquirors. OANDA has been run by CEO Gavin Bambury, based out of London, since 2019. Without giving sources, Sky News reported that OANDA is expecting Revenues this year of about $175 million.

Saxo Bank hires Goldman Sachs to pursue IPO or sale. Copenhagen based Retail FX and CFDs broker Saxo Bank has announced that its shareholders – namely China’s Geely Group, co-founder and CEO Kim Fournais, and Finland’s Mandatum Group – have decided to “initiate a review of strategic opportunities”. Saxo Bank and the shareholders group have collectively appointed investment bank Goldman Sachs as financial advisor, to assist them with the review of strategic opportunities.

XTB shares slide 12% after Spain CFDs update. Shares of Poland based Retail FX and CFDs broker XTB fell by 12% on Monday, after the company issued a statement regarding its plans in Spain. XTB said it would basically halt all CFDs trading marketing related activities in Spain, in accordance with new regulations in the country. XTB gets about 11% of its Revenues from Spain based clients (2023 data), making Spain one of XTB’s most important markets after its home market in Poland (46% of Revenues). Later in the week, Darwinex stated that it would stop offering CFDs to new retail Spanish clients.

BUX offloads FCA licensed entity to UAE CFDs broker APM Capital. Amsterdam based neobroker BUX has begun to offload its non-core units, after earlier this year selling its main BUX B.V. Netherlands-licensed business to Dutch banking concern ABN Amro. BUX announced this week that it has sold its FCA-licensed UK business BUX Financial Services Limited (BUX UK, formerly known as Ayondo Markets Limited) to Asseta Holding, the parent company of APM Capital, an Abu Dhabi based online CFDs broker serving mainly a MENA region clientele.

Exclusive: Trive applies to cancel its UK FCA license. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that Retail FX and CFDs broker Trive has applied to cancel the FCA license of its UK subsidiary Trive Financial Services UK Limited, as the group prepares to depart the UK market. The move comes after Trive Financial Services UK Limited, which operates under the Trivepro brand out of offices in London’s Canary Wharf district, saw the departure earlier this year of its CEO Adam Dougall, as well as institutional sales head David Papier who joined CPT Markets.

Exclusive: LCG back in business, FCA license restrictions removed. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that London based Retail FX and CFDs broker London Capital Group Ltd (or LCG, at website lcg.com) has restarted normal operations, after last month halting all onboarding of new clients, although existing clients were free to continue opening positions with LCG’s partner firms. The halt in operations at LCG, alongside some restrictions in its FCA license, occurred in the aftermath of the forced bankruptcy of the company’s parent FlowBank in Switzerland.