A slew of changes has taken place after an extended period of resignations and workforce reshuffling at London Capital Group Holdings (LON:LCG). Ever since the initial public offering back in August 2008, the company’s share price and market share have been on a steady decline.
In mid-July, as London Capital Group Holdings PLC (LON:LCG) continued to lose market value and burn its cash reserves, a new strategic investor emerged to dedicate a substantial amount of capital into the company and to later take the Executive Chairman role - industry veteran Charles-Henri Sabet.
He led an effort by investment company GLIO Holdings Ltd. to enter into an agreement to subscribe to convertible loan notes totaling £12.5 to £15.0 million, with up to 75 million warrants.
Charles Henri Sabet, Executive Chairman, LCG Holdings
After committing substantial resources to the deal, Mr. Sabet was appointed as Executive Chairman in September and a revamp at the top of the company started. After former CEO Kevin Ashby resigned from his position, the only two senior staff members that have kept their positions are Head of Compliance Hazel Anderson and Chief of Finance Jennifer Himsley.
Early in October, the firm announced that it hired Francois Nembrini as Global Head of Sales and Trading. After twelve years with FXCM, Mr. Nembrini joined London Capital Group Holdings to lead the company into a new direction and to find its own niche within the industry.
At the heart of the broker’s future will be the marketing of new technology. Following shareholder approval, London Capital Group Holdings (LON:LCG) entered into a multi-year licensing agreement to become the exclusive provider of the Algoweb trading platform and Liquidity management software, of which Mr. Sabet owns 50%.
The firm has also hired former CMC Markets Global Head Roger Hynes as Commercial Director. Tom Reeves was brought in from Citi as COO, and after serving as Head of ICAP’s voice brokerage service for 15 years, Peter Wells was recruited by LCG as Head of FX.
The firm also hired former Head of FX at Citigroup in London, Rohan Ramchandani, as Chief Advisor for FX Spot and Risk Management .
Forex Magnates reporters reached out to the company’s new Executive Chairman Charles-Henri Sabet and Francois Nembrini, for more information about the future direction which London Capital Group Holdings PLC will take after securing such an impressive line up.
“Following the big restructuring which we made, we had to let go of a big part of the former management and hire new talent. As a result, we assembled a team of high level professionals and real experts in the industry,” Mr Sabet stated to Forex Magnates reporters.
He explained that, “The aim of the company is to become an important counterpart in foreign exchange, and thanks to our new talent we are getting on track to deliver on that goal.”
Francois Nembrini, Head of Sales and Trading, LCG Holdings
As we asked about more specific areas where the company is gearing to leverage its talent and technology, the firm’s Global Head of Sales and Trading Francois Nembrini revealed that LCG's objective is to merge traditional voice business with electronic business.
“London Capital Group Holdings has a decent offering in prime of prime so what we want to do is compliment it with traditional voice trading. With Algoweb we also have a very powerful multi-asset platform, which is an indispensable tool these days, as we have seen FX volatility drop to 21 year lows,” he explained.
An evolving market can allow smaller structured companies to make big changes and shift direction quickly. This is a very difficult process for bigger firms across the industry.
Mr. Nembrini elaborated on the niche the company has in its sights, saying that, “There is a reality settling in after recent changes to the industry - it is hard to execute large tickets in FX. We have the opportunity to target high-net-worth individuals and semi-professional clients, who have been left out, because of the restructuring in the banking industry, which is going fully electronic.”
As the competition across retail forex and CFD offerings has been expanding immensely in recent years, London Capital Group Holdings (LON:LCG) is aiming at a different niche. After the banks rapidly shifted their resources to full electronic trading in light of the recently unfolded foreign exchange rates fixing scandal, there is a gap in the market which LCG is aspiring to fill.
