TechFinancials, a former binary options market maker and technology provider, announced on Wednesday that it is selling one of its subsidiaries, MarketFinancials, to a Cypriot company called Proverial.
“We sought to dispose of [our] holding in MarketFinancials as we view these operations as being non-core to operations following the decision to step away from B2C operations in Europe,” said TechFinancials CEO Asaf Lahav. “[TechFinancials] continues operating and serving businesses in the Asian market where the majority of revenue is generated.”
MarketFinancials was the market making arm of TechFinancials’ binary options business. The firm tried to sell the subsidiary back in February of last year but, after a deal had been struck with another company, the sale was blocked by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC ).
TechFinancials to Proverial
But now, it seems, the company has been able to complete the deal. That is likely a result of B.O. TradeFinancials, itself a subsidiary of MarketFinancials, having returned its trading license to CySEC in May. B.O. TradeFinancials previously operated a number of binary options brokers, most notably OptionFair, from Israel and Cyprus.
Unlike its brokerage subsidiary, MarketFinancials is regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (SFSA). As such, TechFinancial’s sale of the company is conditional upon the approval of the SFSA. The regulator has to give its final approval to the deal by June 30 this year, but there isn’t any reason to suspect that it won’t.
According to a statement released by TechFinancials via the London Stock Exchange , Proverial will be paying €100,000 ($114,000) to acquire MarketFinancials.
It is unclear what exactly Proverial does. The company is based in Cyprus and one of its directors, Asher Afriat, certainly has prior experience in the binary options space. A report by the Times of Israel last month indicates that he is caught up in the ongoing case in Israel against Utrade Premium Services owner Aviv Talmor.
