Capital.com acquires the OvalX (ETX Capital) client base

Home > News > Capital.com Acquires OvalX's (ETX Capital's) Client Base

OvalX (ETX Capital) has agreed to sell its client base to rivals Capital.com

OvalX the margin trading, CFD and Spread Betting broker, formerly known as ETX, has agreed to sell its clients to rivals Capital.com, where ex-IG CEO Peter Hetherington recently took over the reins.

No financial details about the sale have been disclosed and it’s not clear if any OvalX staff will be joining Capital.com alongside their former customers.

Ironically, ETX Capital took over the client base of previously collapsed broker Alpari.

A change of name and ownership

ETX Capital changed its name to OvalX under the ownership of Guru Capital. A Swiss private equity business run by two former Swiss quote executives.

Guru Capital bought the defunct Italian financial app Oval Money and merged that business with ETX, rebranding the company as it did so.

At the time independent observers questioned the logic of retiring the well-known and fondly regarded ETX brand.

A complicated arrangement

However, it now seems that Guru Capital was in fact only managing the merged businesses, as part of an arrangement with the US venture cap investor Jump Capital. Who ultimately took control of OvalX’s parent company Monecor.

Under the arrangement Jump Capital partner Saurabh Sharma joined the Monecor board, whilst Guri Capital executives Ryan Nettles and Luca Morella were said to have been offered an equity stake in what was ETX, subject to certain performance targets being achieved.

However, performance under the new management was disappointing with the business reporting a £9.2 million loss for the financial year 2021, with trading revenue down by almost -25%.

Jump Capital now appears to have withdrawn its financial support for Monecor, which forced OvalX to consider its strategic options.

The firm was said to be making redundancies in recent weeks.

More hires from IG

Capital.com has also continued to strengthen it’s ranks of market veterans and has recently appointed Niamh Byrne (formally Head of B2B2 & Institutional Sales at IG Prime) as Head of UK and Ireland.

The end for a niche player

ETX had enjoyed a niche position in a competitive marketplace and was notable for its high-touch equity desk, which provided active and high net-worth clients with a personal trading service. The firm had been through a number of owners prior to the takeover by Jump Capital and their agents.

It began life as Tradindex having been set in 2002 by interdealer broker Tradition, who sold out of the business in 2007. The sale of the former ETX client base seems likely to be part of the final chapter in the story.

The OvalX website does not appear to contain any details of the proposed sale of its client base to Capital.com. Nor is it clear if the company have written to those customers yet to inform them of the impending change.

Overall it’s a rather sad and low-key end for business that was a familiar part of the London CFD trading and Spread Betting markets.

Scroll to Top