The Moscow Exchange (MOEX) announced this Friday that its Supervisory Board has approved the purchase of a minority stake in BierbaumPro AG on the 5th of March 2020, in an agreement that should deliver a boost to the Exchange’sexchange's foreign exchange (forex) operations.
Under the agreement, MOEX will consolidate ownership of up to 100 percent of BierbaumPro's equity over a period of three years, the statement released today said. The final price will depend on Bierbaumpro's operational and financial performance.
BierbaumPro's wholly-owned subsidiary and main asset is NTProgress, a Russian company which developed the proprietary over the counter (OTC) FX platform NTPro.
NTProgress has grown into one of the leading platform solution providers on the Russian OTC FX electronic market. Since launching back in 2016, the company has curated a client base of more than 30 banks.
The NTPro platform provides its clients with solutions for Liquidity aggregation, matching, and algo execution across a range of forex instruments. Under the agreement, MOEX will help to develop NTPro in cooperation with the current team of NTProgress.
Acquisition is a milestone in MOEX strategy
Commenting on the partnership, Igor Marich, Member of the Moscow Exchange Executive Board, said in the statement: "The acquisition of NTPro marks an important milestone in the delivery of MOEX's new strategy, as the Exchange seeks to enter rapidly developing market segments adjacent to its existing business. The addition of OTC market services and functionality to our product line means we will be better able to meet our clients' needs."
In particular, the partnership between MOEX and NTProgress will allow both businesses to expand their service offering, as well as provide their clients with NTPro's FX trading solutions alongside the risk management and post-trade facilities of MOEX.
"The partnership with MOEX opens a new page in the NTProgress story, and underscores the confidence in our team's industry-recognized ability to create high-tech trading services. The transaction has been structured to motivate the parties to work together effectively over the long term," added Vyacheskav Kashigin, CEO of NTProgress.
