Japanese Forex firms remain active in M&A, as the country’s two largest FX companies by volume announced aquistitions. GMO Click Securities (the top global broker by trading volume in Forex Magnates Q2 report) made a tender offer for FX Prime Corporation. FX Prime is a Jasdaq listed company who has been offering Forex trading services since 2003. GMO Click is offering JPY 410/share which is a 110% premium to FX Prime’s July 31st closing price. The deal values FX Prime at approximately JPY 3.3 billion ($42 million).
Mr. Kousuke from GMO Click’s Corporate Strategy team guided Forex Magnates to its official disclosure of the tender. There, GMO Click stated that it expects to reach synergies with the deal and that the FX Prime unit would see reduced transactional cost fees by combining with GMO’s trading systems. GMO’s ability to provide industry leading spreads and low cost trading was emphasized in an interview with GMO Click’s CEO Hideyuki Takashima last month. Takashima explained that “As half of our employees are system engineers, we have focused on our system development,” which has allowed them to offer reducing trading spreads. GMO Click expects the deal to be accretive and simultaneously revised its 2012 earnings forecast higher.
Separately, the number two broker in Japan and fourth worldwide DMM.Com Securities, purchased the FX trading businesses of PLANEX, Gaitame Japan Co. LTD. The deal is effective from September 1st 2012. PLANEX also disclosed that it would sell its FX Consulting business to another unnamed Japanese firm on October 1st. The deals will net PLANEX JPY 4,050 million ($51 million).
