An additional international FX firm is evidently looking to become a public company. The online broker X-Trade Brokers (XTB) is considering listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange with an offering worth up to €200 million ($224 million), according to a Reuters market source today.
XTB, founded in Poland in 2002, offers trading in financial derivatives mainly through its own X Open Hub platform. The British arm of the group, XTB Limited, is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
"XTB may land in 2016. The offer may be worth between 100 and 200 million euros," a source with knowledge of the matter reportedly told the news agency. The source added that the company was likely to only list existing shares. Another source confirmed the report that the company was considering a listing in Warsaw, according to Reuters.
It was not clear from today's report as to whether the whole group plans to take part in the IPO. The XTB Group reported its last half-year performance, their net profit for the six months including the January 2015 figure exceeding €15 million, according to an XTB Group statement. Of these profits, approximately 15% have been realized by its institutional entity, X Open Hub (XOH) – an institutional technology and Liquidity provider.
Speaking with Finance Magnates, Jakub Maly, the CEO of XTB, confirmed that the firm might be considering an IPO. However, this is the maximum information he was able to share at present.
This report is part of a recently established global trend of online margin trading firms going public or at least testing the waters. FXPrimus tried to reach an IPO in Australia and IronFX has hinted at the possibility of going public on the American stock market. The most recent successful example was TechFinancials' IPO at the London Stock Exchange AIM.
