Swissquote CEO suggests more acquisitions are in the works

Swissquote has set up an internal fund of CHF 100 million ($110 million) geared to potential acquisitions.

It looks like Swissquote’s appetite for acquisitions might not be sated with its takeover of rival Swiss forex broker MIG Bank. Swissquote (SWX:SQN) CEO Marc Burki was quoted in an interview in Swiss financial publication L’Agefi (and as reported in another Swiss financial portal, finews.ch) saying that ‘it is possible that the next purchase will soon follow’.

Burki elaborated that Swissquote has set aside CHF 100 million (about $110 million) targeted toward potential acquisitions, and that even taking into account the MIG Bank deal, there is still room to make more purchases in the near term.

It was pointed out to us by a guest reader that this would mean that the MIG Bank acquisition was completed for (significantly) less $110 million — Swissquote still has not disclosed the full purchase price for MIG, but eventually will have to, as Swissquote is a public company (SWX:SQN). We had first guesstimated that the deal was done for about $150 million, given MIG Bank’s monthly volumes of about $60 billion and revenues of about $66 million.

We later (exclusively) reported some details of the Swissquote – MIG Bank deal, including that part of consideration to MIG Bank shareholders was made in Swissquote stock — 750,000 shares specifically, valued at about $28 million. We assume that this amount was not included in the $110 million ‘M&A fund’ figure which Burki is referring to.

So how much of the $110 million cash fund was added to the $28 million in stock to buy MIG Bank? We’re still not sure to be honest, but we should find out soon. Stay tuned to LeapRate…

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

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