WIKIFX REPORT: AvaTrade hires bankers for $1 billion IPO: Sky News

　　Sky News is reporting that Retail FX and CFDs broker AvaTrade has hired investment bankers to prepare the ground for an IPO of the company later this year.

　　The report stated that AvaTrade is looking at a listing in London, that could value the company at up to £700 million (USD $960 million). The investment bankers mentioned as having been hired in the report are JP Morgan and Jefferies. Interestingly, Jefferies controls AvaTrade rival FXCM.

　　Quoting “City sources,” the Sky News report said that the IPO was likely to launch in the coming months, depending upon market conditions and investor appetite.

　　AvaTrade has a reported client base of more than 300,000 traders, spread across 150 countries. The company is run day-to-day from Dublin by CEO Daire Ferguson, a former treasury executive at pharmaceuticals company Bristol-Myers Squibb. The company is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, and also has licensed subsidiaries in Australia, South Africa, Japan, the UAE, and Israel. AvaTrade is controlled by its two founding shareholders Emanuel Kronitz and Negev Nosatski.

　　In mid 2015 AvaTrades shareholders agreed to sell the company to Playtech for $105 million. That deal fell apart when the Central Bank of Ireland did not approve the change of control in AvaTrade to a buyer which was also involved in the gaming industry. A similar deal Playtech struck to buy Plus500 for $700 million at around the same time was similarly scuttled by regulators.

　　FNG contacted company management regarding the report, but did not receive a response.

　　Wed also note that this is the second going-public piece of news regarding a Retail FX broker in as many weeks. After an initial exclusive report from FNG, last week eToro confirmed that it agreed to go public via a merger with an existing SPAC, at a valuation of over $10 billion. The announcements should not come as a surprise, given the general strength in equity markets and the fact that shares of publicly traded Retail FX brokers did very well in 2020 and into early 2021.