Exclusive: ThinkMarkets hit with $4.28M court order to return client funds
The interim mandatory injunction requires ThinkMarkets to transfer $4.28 million into its UK client money segregated account by January 15.
Retail FX and CFD broker ThinkMarkets is reportedly in the latter planning stages for an initial public offering (IPO).
The company is working with investment bankers including Citi, which have indicated to ThinkMarkets that the likely valuation range for the company would be around $300 million. ThinkMarkets is doing about $75 million in annual revenues.
The plan would be to raise about $100 million, most of which would likely go to the company but some of which might be in the form of existing shareholders cashing in part of their positions.
While no final decision has been made, the IPO appears to be centered around the Australia market with a listing on the ASX – the Australian Securities Exchange, Australia’s primary securities exchange. The target is to complete the IPO by the end of 2020.
The interim mandatory injunction requires ThinkMarkets to transfer $4.28 million into its UK client money segregated account by January 15.
The cancellation of the ThinkMarkets-FG deal marks the third consecutive failed attempt of a Retail FX and CFDs broker to go public.
The decision to cancel the ThinkMarkets merger with FG Acquisition Corp was apparently a mutual one.
FG Acquisition and ThinkMarkets still intend to go ahead with their merger, which will require at least $10 million to be raised.
FG is facing an already-once-extended deadline of November 30 to come up with at least $10 million in fresh capital.
FG Acquisition Corp needs to raise a minimum of $10 million in new capital to fulfil the terms of its merger agreement with ThinkMarkets.
When ThinkMarkets announced that it was going public by merging with FG, the plan was for the deal to be completed by the end of July 2023.
FG is returning about USD $116 million in cash to its shareholders after 11.399 million class A shares were deposited for redemption.
A resolution to extend the date by which the corporation has to consummate a qualifying acquisition was approved by a vote of 97.3%.
David Hodge was most recently with CySEC licensed retail broker Skilling as its Chief Marketing & Growth Officer.