Global investment banking and wealth management company William Blair & Co has furthered its interest in FXCM Inc (NYSE:FXCM) by increasing is stake in the company to 11.69%, taking its total number of shares in the company to 5,511,230, as documented by a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dated December 31, 2014.
William Blair & Co became the largest institutional shareholder in FXCM in June 2014, when the company took a 10.38% stake in FXCM.
An important matter to note is that William Blair & Co’s holding is in the publicly traded Common shares. FXCM has a separate series of private shares held only by insiders, so fully diluted William Blair would hold approximately 5% of FXCM.
The increase in ownership by William Blair came just before the time when FXCM shares values became a shadow of their former worth in the aftermath of the Swiss National Bank’s removal of the 1.20 peg on the Swiss Franc which created rapid appreciation of the Swiss franc, exposing many firms, including FXCM, to negative balances.
FXCM’s negative client account balance total weighed in at $225 million, as a result of which the company took a $300 million loan from Leucadia, with rising interest and forced sale after three years, thus the share values reduced from approximately $17 per share in early January to $2.28 at current market value.
Since adopting a ‘poison pill’ shareholders rights plan late last week, share prices have begun to gradually rise, with a 9% increase in value having been evident at close of business yesterday.
For the SEC filing detailing William Blair’s increase in ownership, click here.