Several months after ETX Capital’s landmark purchase of Alpari UK’s client book, the company has revealed a number of benefits accrued via the deal, according to an ETX Capital statement.
Perhaps more so than any other broker in 2015, Alpari UK has undergone a tumultuous year, instigated by a snap decision from the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to abolish its currency peg with the euro in January. The fallout found Alpari UK go insolvent, triggering a lengthy reconciliation period in which Alpari UK investors sought closure and access to their funds – since then KPMG has been assisting in the matter.
Finance Magnates covered ETX Capital’s purchase of Alpari UK’s client list back in March, which also coincided with the augmentation of its staff in the aftermath of the deal. More specifically, ETX Capital reported that its team had expanded with the addition of 20 new staff members in a bid to support the growth in London and in the firm’s technology center in Hemel Hempstead, with individuals specifically coming from Alpari UK.
This was always about giving Alpari clients a positive outcome after a very difficult period
According to Andrew Edwards, CEO of ETX Capital, in a post-purchase statement, “This was always about giving Alpari clients a positive outcome after a very difficult period. They had a choice to stay with the normal administration process or opt in to having their funds transferred to ETX Capital and get early access to certain benefits that they would otherwise not have had."
Indeed, some of the winners and beneficiaries of the deal with ETX Capital have to be Alpari UK’s clients, who have been involved in a bitter strife with the Alpari UK during most of H1 2015. The first wave of client funds was distributed only in March, at the assistance of KPMG, capping a messy divorce between clients and Alpari UK.
Ultimately, "These benefits included the ability to receive up to 30% of their expected balance as an advance, the chance to convert their funds (released in USD) to the currency of their choice at market rates, and spread rebates during their first month of trading. Add in the possibility of receiving a first deposit bonus for newly deposited funds, and it's easy to see why so many former Alpari clients are now trading with ETX Capital," he noted.
Conversely, ETX Capital itself has seen a rise of approximately 6,000 new clients after the deal for Alpari UK’s book earlier this year, with roughly $30 million in client funds, per the ETX report.
The deal for Alpari UK’s client book marks the second such deal for ETX Capital – back in 2013, ETX acquired the totality of Shelbourne markets’ customer base, which at the time was the second largest contracts-for-difference (CFD) broker in Ireland. "This is the second transaction of this kind that ETX Capital has managed to execute and we hope to be in a position to find other opportunities to further grow our customer base," added John Wilson, Chairman of ETX Capital, in an accompanying statement.
ETX Capital is an FCA regulated financial services firm, providing a number of services across both the retail and institutional sector. The group offers a number of products across a variety of asset classes, including financial spread betting, leveraged foreign Exchange (FX), CFDs and Binary Options trading.
