City Index Group Limited - Acquisition of FX Solutions LLC

London, UK, February 6th: City Index Group, a leading provider of retail derivative trading services including CFDs, FX and spread betting, is pleased to announce the acquisition of FX Solutions LLC (fxsolutions.com) in an all equity transaction.

FX Solutions, based in Saddle River, New Jersey, provides a premier retail foreign exchange (‘FX’) electronic trading platform for all major currency pairs.  FX Solutions was founded in 2001 by Thomas Plaut and Robert Cortright, two industry leading executives with over 40 years combined experience in foreign exchange trading.  Messrs Plaut and Cortright will continue in central roles in the enlarged group.

FX Solutions has been recognized for 3 consecutive years by Inc. magazine as a part of the annual Inc. 500 “America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies” list.  Only 11 of 500 companies achieved that status, and in 2007, FX Solutions was the only retail FX broker to make the list.

Between December 2005 and December 2007 FX Sol’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) grew at a cumulative annual rate of over 60 per cent.  In early 2007 Francisco Partners, the US private equity house, invested over US $100 million in FX Solutions.

The combined Group will employ over 400 staff across 6 offices in the UK, United States, China, Singapore and Australia and has partnership relationships throughout Europe, North America, Australia and the Middle East, transacting approximately 1.6 million trades per month.  The Group is regulated in Europe, the United States, Singapore and Australia. 

Mr Clive Cooke, CEO City Index, commented on the transaction:

“The FX Solutions team have built a highly successful business with clients in over 50 countries and we are delighted to be able to bring our two companies together.  This transaction will enhance and strengthen our current product offerings to our retail clients and institutional business partners and accelerate our expansion into new geographical markets.”

Thomas Plaut Co-founder and Co-CEO of FX Solutions, commented:

“We are very pleased to be joining the City Index Group, an ideal partner to take our business to the next stage.  City Index’s diverse and worldwide operations will open new opportunities for our business and we know the merger with City Index is going to be a positive for all involved – especially our customers.” 

“We are delighted to be participating in this combination, which creates a new, multi-product leader with best in class technology, serving a rapidly growing, global market,” said David Golob, Partner with Francisco Partners.

Further information

City Index                                                                    U.S. Contact for FX Solutions

Alison Cashmore, Corporate Communications                  Josh Inglis, Strategics               

00 44 207 107 7275                                                        00 1 312-346-2007

00 44 7740 068 580                                                        00 1 312-504-7677

Alison.cashmore@cityindex.co.uk                                   jinglis@strategicsinc.com

About City Index Group

City Index is a leading provider of CFD, foreign exchange, options and, in the UK, spread betting services.  The Group trades primarily under the City Index, Finspreads and IFX brands and also provides a fully outsourced white label solution to numerous partners.
 

In September 2006, City Index acquired IFX Group plc (‘IFX’), the London-based international business which provides institutional and retail clients with a range of innovative leveraged financial products, principally in the foreign exchange and global equity markets.  The offer valued IFX at approximately £57.9 million.  

City Index was established in 1983 and its ultimate parent company is IPGL, a private holding company.  IPGL’s other interests include an indirect shareholding of approximately 20 per cent. in ICAP plc, the FTSE 100 listed interdealer broker with a market capitalisation of approximately £4.3 billion, of which Michael Spencer is a director and Chief Executive Officer. 

cityindex.com

About FX Solutions LLC

FX Solutions is a leading US-based online foreign exchange broker serving both retail and institutional customers.  The Company provides IB's and White Label Partners FX trading and risk management in over 100 countries through its Global Trading Systems (GTS) platform.  Regulated by the CFTC and NFA, FX Solutions’ custom-engineered suite of applications includes one-click trading, automated execution of orders, a proprietary price feed and competitive fixed-spread pricing - resulting in consistently low executable spreads.  FX Solutions has websites and complete customer support in four languages.

FX Solutions’ Global Trading System platform, known as GTS, was built to be scalable and flexible, serving the needs of retail clients and institutional partners. The GTS platform provides for over 99% automated execution of all orders as well as a suite of professional trading features and tools.  Recently, FX Solutions announced the launch of two new products:  GTS Web, a web-based platform and FX AccuCharts 7.0, a charting package that has over 150 indicators and allows for trading from the charts.  Later this year, the Company plans to launch GTS Mobile, a mobile trading platform.

fxsolutions.com

About Francisco Partners (‘FP’)

Francisco Partners is a leading global private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in technology and technology-enabled businesses.  With approximately $5.0 billion of committed capital, Francisco Partners is one of the world’s largest technology-focused private equity funds.  The firm was founded to pursue structured investments in technology companies undergoing strategic, technological and operational inflexion points.  Francisco Partners targets majority and minority investments in private companies, public companies and divisions of public companies, with transaction values ranging from $30 million to $2.0 billion. 

franciscopartners.com