Deutsche Börse Group is mulling the acquisition of Thomson Reuters’ FXall, an electronic FX Trading Platform to corporations and asset managers. The news was first reported by German financial daily Handelsblatt, citing Deutsche Boerse’s Global Head of FX Carlo Koelzer, who was quoted as saying “If FXall were put on the market we would of course look at it.”
If confirmed, the move would mark Deutsche Borse’s continued expansion motive in the foreign exchange space and institutional level trading businesses. It comes after nearly three years of Deutsche Borse’s foray into FX ECN of its own with the acquisition of 360T, which turned to be the center of the exchange’s global FX business.
Also last year, the German Stock Exchange operator acquired GAIN Capital’s trading venue GTX ECN for $100 million as it looks to expand its FX business in the US. The takeover deal saw GTX ECN integrated with the exchange operator’s FX trading platform 360T to create one of the largest OTC FX spot, forwards, swaps, NDFs and options marketplaces.
Tradeweb Markets also on the table
Meanwhile, the news also comes amid a wider upheaval in the ownership of trading venues and financial technology companies. All major exchanges around the globe have been venturing deep into the FX space including Cboe’s takeover of Hotspot in 2015 and Euronext acquisition of Fastmatch in 2017.
Thomson Reuters bought FXall in 2012 for $620 million in cash. FXall’s services are used by 180 banks and over 2,300 institutional clients that make markets for foreign exchange products, including asset managers, corporations, banks, broker-dealers, and hedge funds.
Blackstone Group LP, which completed the buyout of a majority stake in Thomson Reuters’ financial-and-risk arm (Refinitiv), was reportedly weighing the sale of FXall. At the time, Bloomberg said the deal could fetch more than $3 billion, citing a source with intimate knowledge of the matter. Blackstone was also said mulling a sale or public offering of Tradeweb Markets LLC, Refinitiv’s fixed income platform that a number of big banks own stakes in.
