The news comes a year after the gambling software form ditched its attempt to buy Plus500, one of the top CFD brokers in the UK.
Playtech – the Israeli business owned by billionaire Teddy Sagi – has agreed to acquire Consolidated Financial Holdings (CFH), a technology company with products including a leading Straight Through Processing (STP) brokerage.
CFH provides retail brokers with multi-asset execution, prime brokerage services, liquidity and complementary risk management tools. Playtech will acquire 70 per cent of CFH on completion of the deal, scheduled to complete on 30 November, 2016.
The remaining 30 per cent will be subject to put and call options between Playtech and CFH’s management team, who are remaining with the business, and which can be exercised in 2019.
The acquisition will enhance Playtech’s position as it continues to build a B2B offering within its Financials division.
Deal comes a year after Playtech pulled out of deal for top forex broker
Just a year ago, Playtech pulled out of a deal to acquire Plus 500; one of the largest CFD brokers in the market. The Israeli software giant ditched plans for a £460 million takeover of Plus 500 – widely regarded as one of the best CFD brokers – after problems in obtaining regulatory clearance for the deal.
Under UK rules, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had to give clearance for Playtech to take a stake greater than 10 per cent in Plus500, which is regulated. However, the ‘changes’ demanded by the FCA would have taken Playtech too long to implement, and they pulled out of the deal.
Playtech have confirmed that they have obtained regulatory approval for their acquisition of CFH, as the company’s wholly owned subsidiary CFH Clearing Ltd is regulated by the FCA.
