Gain Capital sees Lebanese businessman Michel Daher begin to cash out of his GCAP position

Daher still owns 11% of Gain; he previously was a 10%+ shareholder and board member at rival FXCM.

Lebanese businessman Michel Daher sure seems to know how to make money in Forex. But it is in trading the shares of Forex brokers, not in trading currencies.

LeapRate has learned, via a series of filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that Michel Daher and his brother Abdallah, through their BVI holding company Master Global Assets Ltd., have been selling portions of their holdings in Gain Capital (NYSE:GCAP, owners of the Forex.com and Gain GTX brands), after building up a large position in Gain Capital when GCAP shares were scraping their lows in the $4-5 range in early 2013.

The specifics? Since September, Daher has sold nearly 700,000 GCAP shares for proceeds of more than $6.6 million. His sales were done at prices between $9-11 per share, after picking up much of his GCAP position at between $4-5 when the stock market had soured on Gain.

What makes this story more interesting is Daher’s history with Gain Capital’s main rival, FXCM. Daher was a partner in getting FXCM off the ground. Michel Daher was actually a board member up to the time of FXCM’s IPO in late 2010, and at the time of the IPO he held 12.6% of FXCM’s shares. Daher disposed of the last of his FXCM stock in June 2013.

Daher made his fortune in the food business. His Lebabon-based Daher Foods includes the Master Chips and Poppins brands, two of the largest FMCG companies in the MENA region.

Michel Taher Gain Capital ownership

Recent GCAP share sales by Master Global Assets Ltd. Source: SEC Form 4.

We recently reported similar share sales at FXCM, with Lucid Markets principal Matthew Wilhelm selling $19 million in FXCM shares. The situation there was a little different though — Wilhelm received his FXCM stock via the acquisition of Lucid by FXCM in June 2012.

For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.

 

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