Forex.com Japan, the brand of GAIN Capital, announced on Tuesday the acquisition of the customers of the online FX trading business of Planex Trade. In an official statement, published on Forex.com’s Japanese website, the broker promises smooth transition to its new clients and welcomes them under the famous brand.
The reasons for the acquisition have not been explicitly stated but the move marks an interesting twist when considering that in December 2012 it was Planex that took over the Japanese business of GFT, the company which is now part of GAIN Capital. The integration of GFT’s services into Forex.com has been progressing and customers of Forex.com UK and Australia can now make use of multi-asset trading platform DealBook. The accent of the offering in the UK, as one may expect, is spread betting.
The deal is not indicative of any problems at Planex Trade. The company is amid the well established derivatives trading businesses in Japan, and it is worth noting that its corporate history dates back to 1971. Moreover, Planex has been launching new services, having added a binary options platform to its portfolio in June this year.
The move underlines the recent zeal of GAIN Capital for acquisitions and diversification of its business. Amid the most attention-striking deals that the US group undertook over the past several months were the purchases of majority stakes in Global Asset Advisors (“GAA”) and Top Third Ag Marketing (“Top Third”) in March this year, as GAIN Capital sought to boost its futures business. The move regarding the Japanese market is particularly interesting and ambitious, given the dominance of Japanese brokers in the domestic FX market.
The M&A push by GAIN Capital is happening during a challenging environment for online trading, with volatility being extremely low. Indeed, only a couple of days ago GAIN Capital’s chief executive Glenn Stevens stated that the volatility is at its lowest level for 10 years – a factor blamed for the dismal financial results GAIN reported for the first half of 2014.