Dukascopy Bank Expresses Interest in a Japanese License, Eyes Alpari Japan

After Dukascopy Bank announced back on the 19th of January that it is looking into Acquisition targets, the company has taken a PR opportunity to express publicly its interests. The Swiss broker issued an announcement that it is aiming to purchase the Japanese unit under Alpari UK, which is under special administration by KPMG.

The company is aiming at the lucrative Japanese market, stating that it is interested in acquiring a Japanese licensed brokerage in its announcement. With this in mind, its worth pointing out that the financial damage on the Japanese brokers has been relatively minimal, due to the lack of popularity of the Swiss franc.

Dukascopy Bank's presence in the lucrative Asian market has not been as established as in Central and Eastern Europe. The company clarified in the company announcement that the negotiations are going slowly and there is lack of certainty that any takeover deal can be finalized in regards to Alpari UK.

The lack of interest of retail traders in Japan to trade the Swiss franc can be explained in a number of ways. First, the country's own currency, the Japanese yen is the mot actively traded instrument, add to that the most commonly used strategy for local traders is to short the Japanese yen to build up carry trade positions, and the CHF trading is automatically reduced to a minimum.