Bloomberg is reporting that Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) is considering a sale of institutional Forex ECN FXall. And, that the business could fetch more than $3 billion.
That certainly seems like a very big number, given that FXall was acquired in July 2012 for $625 million – roughly a fifth of the current proposed price.
Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg reported that Blackstone plans to review selling FXall after the planned closing next month of its acquisition of a majority stake in Thomson Reuters’ financial-and-risk arm, which includes the FXall business. Blackstone plans to rename the new unit Refinitiv.
Bloomberg did point out that no decision has been made and Refinitiv could ultimately decide to keep FXall.
Blackstone is buying a 55% interest in what will be known as Refinitiv for $17 billion, alongside co-investors Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and GIC Pte, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. The acquisition is set to close next week on October 1.
If sold, FXall would mark the latest in a string of institutional FX platforms finding themselves with new owners recently. GAIN Capital sold its institutional FX arm GTX for $100 million to Deutsche Boerse’s 360T in May. And EBS, owned by NEX Group, is about to be acquired by CME Group as part of CME’s £3.9 billion takeover of NEX.