The OTC Markets traded company that is acquiring the assets of Forexware and IronFX has officially announced the deal. As already reported by Finance Magnates the company that is majority owned by Emil Assentato, Nukkleus, has acquired select assets in technology provider Forexware and a 9.9 per cent shareholder stake in IronFX Global.
The OTC Markets traded firm acquired 100 per cent of the Australian regulated entity under which IronFX Australia and FXGiants are operating.
Nukkleus is a publicly traded company on OTC Markets as a 'pink sheet' and is not listed on NASDAQ. Such companies are quoted over-the-counter, off exchange and are not obligated to meet any minimum requirements or file regular reports with the SEC. That said, the firm has been filing reports with the U.S. regulator about the progress of the deals.
IronFX Shrinks Four Times from February 2015
A piece of information that stands out in the announcement is the dramatic decrease in the number of employees and offices that has been continuing at IronFX.
In an interview with Finance Magnates in February 2015, the CEO of the brokerage Markos Kashiouris outlined that the number of IronFX direct offices around the world is 26. At the same time the number of the employees of the company according to him at the time was approximately 800 worldwide.
New data from the official announcement made by Nukkleus highlights that the public holding company which includes the offices and employees of both Forexware and IronFX is materially lower than the numbers that Kashiouris mentioned last year. Both companies that are part of Nukkleus have offices in 11 cities worldwide with more than 300 employees.
IronFX currently has a multitude of brands, but its notable two are IronFX and FXGiants. According to the press release the parent company of both now has offices in 8 countries and more than 200 employees in five continents.
This confirms that the size of the operations of IronFX ever since the company was rumored by the WSJ to be going public has decreased multiple times. The reputation of the brand suffered greatly due to a €350,000 settlement with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission and a multitude of complaints by clients of the broker that their withdrawal requests were not being honored.
According to the announcement Nukkleus intends to “continue identifying leading retail Forex brands from around the world as well as leading financial technology companies related to the industry which can potentially be included and synergistically folded into Nukkleus”.
As reported by Finance Magnates the brands under Nukkleus will keep their own separate brand identities and operational autonomy. The announcement also highlights that its brands will hold “segregated customer deposits for each individual retail forex brand it may potentially acquire in the future”.
Insiders Comments
Commenting on the transaction, Emil Assentato, Nukkleus Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated: “The online financial sector consolidation is long overdue both in terms of merging technological backbones and creating efficiencies with respect to regulatory capital requirements, while ensuring a truly global product and service coverage.”
"With Nukkleus we have a first mover advantage in creating value through the aggregation of selected Online Trading and financial technology assets. We are excited with the value creation opportunities present in the sector; on top of the initial transactions announced today, Nukkleus has options to acquire additional financial trading and financial technology assets to complement both product and geographical coverage of the sector,“ he elaborated.
The option that Assentato mentions in his remarks includes FXDD, a company where he holds the majority interest.
The transaction advisor to Nukkleus and a prospective member of the Nukkleus Board of Directors, Craig J. Marshak, added: “We structured this transaction to capitalize on the growing opportunities in both the financial technology side and the regulated brokerage side of the global retail forex industry.”
“Our investment team has previously invested capital as a principal in several well known, industry leading players in the retail forex sector, and today, using our knowledge of the industry we intend to capitalize on a variety of opportunities for Nukkleus to expand the scope of its operations significantly through the aggregation and consolidation of industry assets,” he elaborated.
The CEO of IronFX, Markos A. Kashiouris, added: “Our core strategy always involved the introduction of an industry leading consolidation platform driven by outstanding localized service and product development, as well as, cutting edge technological backbone and multi locational regulatory coverage.”
“By building strong on the existing operations of Nukkleus, as well as, the future contemplated transactions, we create unparalleled and long overdue global synergies that place us at the forefront of value creation within the sector,” he said.
