Hi everyone. I’ve got some big forex news that may or may not affect some of you – hopefully for the better though. I just learned today from a member of the Forex Nirvana forum on this thread that FXCM has acquired (ie bought out) the European (UK based if I’m not mistaken) forex brokerage firm known as ODL Markets. The official news statement goes something like this:
ODL Group Limited (“ODL”), a leading, independent forex, derivatives, equities and commodities broker, announces today that it has agreed on terms to be acquired by US-based FXCM Holdings LLC (“FXCM”), a leading global forex broker that caters to both retail and institutional markets. ODL’s strong UK and European businesses will provide an excellent complement to FXCM’s sizeable operations in both the United States and Asia. The combined companies will operate as one of the largest non-bank forex brokers globally servicing over 200,000 live trading accounts with combined client assets in excess of US$800 million. The deal is still pending final due diligence review and regulatory approval.
Founded in 1999, FXCM is one of the largest forex brokers, regulated by several financial regulators including the Financial Services Authority in the UK and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the U.S. FXCM is one of very few forex and CFD brokers to regularly publish its balance sheet. With over $135 million in firm capital (assets minus liabilities), FXCM exceeds regulatory requirements.
Post acquisition, ODL will continue to trade under its current name. A major benefit to ODL clients will be that they gain access to FXCM’s No Dealing Desk execution on forex trades. Under No Dealing Desk execution, forex trades are fully-automated and executed back-to-back with one of the world’s premier banks or financial institutions. Over ten banks compete to provide FXCM with bid and ask prices, resulting in low spreads and fast execution, with no intervention from a dealing desk on forex trades. Another major benefit of No Dealing Desk execution is the ability to place orders within one pip of the market with no restrictions.
Commenting on the acquisition, Drew Niv, CEO of FXCM, said: “For several years, FXCM has been working towards becoming a major player in Europe. The deal with ODL will provide us with a great opportunity to achieve this. We believe FXCM will be the only retail forex firm with a truly global footprint. In an industry in which size and scale are important, this is a major advantage.”
No financial information regarding the structure of the deal is being released.
London based specialist advisory firm FT Advisors Limited www.ft-advisors.com acted as exclusive advisor to ODL.
San Francisco based FT Partners www.ftpartners.com served as sole strategic advisor to FXCM.
If you want to share your opinion of FXCM (or experience) I’d suggest you join me at the FXCM thread at Forex Nirvana:
http://www.forexnirvana.com/f11/fxcm-730/
See you on the forum.
Cheers,
Alan