OANDA, a prominent brand in the forex and contracts for differences (CFDs) brokerage space, has been put up for sale by its owner, CVC Capital Partners, an Amsterdam-listed buyout firm, Sky News reported.
Although there are no official updates yet, the retail broker is being marketed by the bankers at Nomura and Santander. The terms and financials of the deal also remain unknown at this stage.
Finance Magnates reached out to OANDA for confirmation but they refused to comment on the matter.
A Major Retail Brokerage Brand
OANDA is a major retail brokerage brand that offers trading services in foreign exchange, equities, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. It has a presence in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan, among several other countries. It is one of the few licensed brokerages that offer retail margin forex trading in the US.
Over the years, the broker has also expanded into trending sectors, including the funded trading space (popularly called prop trading). It launched its prop trading services earlier this year, being one of the first brokers to enter the new space. However, it has kept the services under its offshore British Virgin Island entity.
OANDA has more than 100,000 active traders and is expected to generate about $175 million in revenue this year, which will be a record.
Possible Change of Ownership
CVC Capital Partners Asia Fund acquired OANDA in 2018, which was one of the largest brokerage deals in the industry at the time.
Apart from OANDA, several other brokers are trying to change their ownership or go public. Recently, reports surfaced that Saxo has been contemplating a possible full or partial sale at a valuation of up to 2 billion euros after a failed attempt to go public. Meanwhile, eToro and ThinkMarkets could not materialize their deals with blank-check companies to go public. Another prominent brokerage deal involves NAGA Group and CAPEX.com, as the two are merging their businesses.
