A significant part of the foreign Exchange business of Thomson Reuters could be up for sale, Bloomberg reports. Blackstone Group, which is the new parent of the financial and risk arm which includes the FX unit is considering sale options for FXall.
Bloomberg is reporting that the value of the unit is estimated at around $3 billion. The estimate has been made by a source with intimate knowledge of the matter.
To date, no final decision has been made on the sale of FXall. The FX ECN is part of the portfolio of the financial and risk business of Thomson Reuters. The unit was pooled into a company called Refinitiv, which is close to finalise its sale to Blackstone.
From $625 million to 3$ billion
The value estimate disclosed by Bloomberg puts a high premium on the purchase price of FXall which Thomson Reuters made in 2012. At the time, the company acquired its former parent for $625 million.
A prospective sale of the unit is still on the cards and the final decision of Blackstone could be to keep the unit. According to the report, Blackstone is also reviewing a sale of Tradeweb Markets, which is Revinitiv’s bond Trading Platform .
The new parent company of Refinitiv, Blackstone is in the process of concluding its purchase of 55 percent of Refinitiv. The deal worth $17 billion and was co-funded by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.
The prospective sale of FXall could come after Blackstone concludes a review of all assets that Refinitiv holds.
The prospective sale will be the fourth major transaction in the care in three years. Earlier this year, Deutsche Boerse AG purchased Gain Capital’s ECN business.
Last year CBOE bought BATS Global Markets which included an FX ECN previously known as Hotspot FX. BATS bought it for $365 million back in 2015.
