Leucadia National Corp. (NYSE:LUK) released its fourth quarter and full year 2017 results yesterday, along with management’s annual Letter to Shareholders, which gave more insight into how different parts of the business and certain investments have fared.
One of the more interesting disclosures of the Letter was news that the company was already well “in the black” from its $300 million loan made to retail FX broker FXCM in January 2015, after FXCM suffered crippling losses from the sudden 15/01/2015 spike in the value of the Swiss Franc.
Although Leucadia took a non-cash $130 million markdown in the carrying value of its FXCM investment during 2017 after FXCM and its then-CEO Drew Niv were fined and banned from the US forex market, on a ‘real’ cash basis Leucadia reported that it has recouped a total of $353 million in principal, interest and fee repayments from FXCM from that original $300 million loan.
And there is a lot more to come.
Leucadia is still owed about $70 million by FXCM. And, Leucadia will continue to receive up to 75% of future cash distributions from FXCM after the loan is fully repaid.
As we exclusively reported earlier this week, FXCM just rebranded and changed up its logo, adding in the Leucadia name. Leucadia Managing Director Jimmy Hallac now serves as the Chairman of FXCM.