Saxo Bank has sold a majority stake in its Australian online trading business to South African trading technology provider DMA for an undisclosed sum.
DMA has purchased a 80.1% holding in Saxo Australia, subject to regulatory approvals, with the transaction set to close in the second half of this year. Saxo Bank will retain a 19.9% equity stake.
The deal will combine Saxo Australia’s range of investment products and brokerage services with DMA’s business-to-business platform, which provides services to more than 160 wealth managers and adviser networks across Africa and Europe.
The business will continue to operate as Saxo Australia for the time being, though a new name and brand for the business will be established following a transitional period.
The business will also retain Saxo Australia’s current staff under the leadership of its CEO Adam Smith. It also seeks to add to its Australia-based client service capacity.
Existing retail clients of Saxo Australia will be able to continue using the platform, due to Saxo Bank’s open application programming interface (API) solution.
This provides a brokerage business model as well as trade order management, execution, settlement, and post-trade operations.
The sale comes after Denmark-headquartered Saxo Bank announced it would undertake a review of its businessin the Asia-Pacific in June.
It also follows reports that Saxo Bank attracted acquisition bids from investors and rival platforms, including Interactive Brokers, after hiring investment bank Goldman Sachs to help it identify new owners.
Other parties considering acquiring the group include Altor Equity Partners and Centerbridge Partners.
In October the bank rolled out its SaxoInvestor service for UK clients, providing access to more than 70,000 global instruments including stocks, ETFs, bonds and mutual funds.
Saxo Bank currently oversees around $120 billion of client assets globally.
In a 2019 interview with the Good Money Guide, its UK CEO at the time Andrew Edwards noted: “Saxo targets a more sophisticated, professional trader, and that includes people that are looking to create wealth or enhance their portfolio value.”
Robin has more than six years of experience as a financial journalist, most of which were spent at Citywire, and covers the latest developments in the investing, trading and currency transfer space. Outside of work, he enjoys reading literature and philosophy and playing the piano.
You can contact Robin at robin@goodmoneyguide.com
