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Transactions

April 2019
London, UK
has sold a minority equity interest in its subsidiary
London, UK
to
Singapore


Background

BidFX is a young, fast-growing, cloud-based, broker-neutral, foreign exchange e-trading solution for the global financial marketplace. The company was conceived and incubated within TradingScreen, Inc., a leading provider of SaaS based electronic trading services for hedge funds, mutual funds, and brokers, globally. Trading Screen approached M&A for strategic and financial adviceon the best way to carve out BidFx and raise capital for its independent growth.



Overview

M&A used its deep domain expertise in advising on financial technology transactions to help BidFX quickly develop materials that clearly communicated the strength of the company’s execution management system (“EMS”), liquidity and integration tools; risk and compliance tools, and its data and analytics tools; as well as its strong competitive positioning and the company’s impressive client base of more than 60 marquee hedge funds, asset managers, and banks in the US, UK, Europe and Asia.  

At the same time, M&A helped the company develop a detailed financial plan that clearly validated its growth expectations. M&A then leveraged its extensive contacts to help the company reach out to potentially interested parties in the US, UK, Europe and Asia. After extensive review and discussion with multiple interested parties, TradingScreen concluded that their preferred option was to accept a minority investment from Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX), Asia’s biggest provider of listed FX trading and an integrated securities exchange and derivatives exchange based in Singapore. The funds provided by SGX will be used to continue enhancing the BidFX platform and add to the unit’s separate development, sales and management teams - all while rolling out product enhancements, adding liquidity providers, increasing staffing, developing strategic partnerships as well as increasing sales presence in Europe the US and Asia. As part of the transaction, SGX will gain the option to take a majority stake in BidFX.

M&A Role

Marlin & Associates served as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to TradingScreen and BidFX on a complex minority investment and carve-out. M&A led the preparation of detailed transaction marketing materials, conducted discussions with multiple interested parties, facilitated information exchange, advised on the negotiation and evaluation of alternative offers and helped Trading Screen and BidFX management navigate the competing desires of multiple parties.

Please read the full announcement here.

Press

Marlin & Associates Advises BidFX on Strategic Investment by SGX

March 28, 2019

SGX acquires stake in FX trading platform BidFX for $25 million

BidFX, a subsidiary of TradingScreen, will use the funds to expand its reach among the institutional investor community.

March 27, 2019 11:14 AM GMT
 
By Hayley McDowell
 

Singapore Exchange (SGX) has acquired a 20% stake in FX trading platform provider BidFX for $25 million as the exchange operator continues its drive in FX futures.

BidFX, a subsidiary of order and execution management systems specialist TradingScreen, provides hedge funds, asset managers and banks with a front-end trading platform, as well as a liquidity aggregator tool for FX spot, swaps and forwards for G10 and Asian currencies.

SGX said that the investment is part of its strategy to build out its FX offering, particularly in FX futures, which the exchange operator first introduced in 2013. Since then, SGX said that more than $2 trillion in aggregate notional has been traded across its FX business.

“FX is one of our key growth pillars and we are excited to strengthen our service proposition to the market,” said Loh Boon Chye, chief executive officer at SGX. “With this investment, we have an opportunity to offer our suite of Asian FX futures alongside the over-the-counter (OTC) products offered on the BidFX platform, bringing together both pools of liquidity. We are confident that over time, they will establish themselves as a global e-FX platform and complement our fast-growing FX business.”

BidFX will use the funds to expand its reach among institutional investors, and the company’s chief executive, Jean-Philippe Malé, added that the capital allows the firm to enhance products to deliver comprehensive FX coverage for market participants.

“We’ve been incubating BidFX inside TradingScreen, with demand for the most sophisticated FX trading and workflow solutions expected to grow significantly in the coming years. This investment strengthens BidFX’s leadership status across the global financial markets ecosystem,” TradingScreen CEO, Pierre Schroeder, also commented.

FX futures has been a key focus for SGX recently. Last year, the trading venue launched its customisable FlexC FX Futures, which can be traded over the counter (OTC) and cleared on the exchange. As of February, SGX added that its FX futures had an average daily turnover volume of $4.4 billion and notional open interest of $5.4 billion.

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