Breaking: IG Group pays $40 million to buy DailyFX, the economic calendar everyone in London uses
IG Group will acquire DailyFX for $40 million from its current owner FXCM, with the deal set to complete by the end of October. This is very big news as it is one of London’s most used economic callendars, yet the sale will allow FXCM to pull itself further out of debt to Leucadia. Shrewd moves all round.
British retail electronic trading giant IG Group has today agreed, subject to final approvals, to purchase DailyFX.
DailyFX is an international news and research portal which currently belongs to FXCM.
The deal, which involves the acquisition of DailyFX and its associated assets from FXCM Inc. involves a transaction value of $40 million (currently £30.8 million). It is anticipated that the transaction will complete by the end of October.
As far as the purchase of this portal by a British firm is concerned, this is huge news as DailyFX is in widespread use among London’s traders and industry professionals alike.
According to IG Group this morning, the purchase is part of the company’s stated aim of becoming the default choice for active traders globally. DailyFX, through a series of global websites, delivers market-leading education, research, analysis and news, focused predominantly on the FX markets. IG believes this transaction will significantly enhance its ability to acquire new clients and to engage with and improve the retention rates of its current clients.
The DailyFX websites currently support eight languages, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Arabic and Chinese, with the client recruitment centred in related geographic regions.
IG will take on ownership of all of the assets associated with delivering the full service to current and potential clients, including journalistic and support staff, subscription lists, source code, all relevant domain names and all intellectual property rights. For an agreed annual fee, FXCM will continue to benefit from advertising on the US site and will take ownership of any US and Canadian domiciled leads that this advertising generates.
On an annualised basis, it is expected that the addition of the DailyFX news and education-based marketing channel will add around £5 million to ongoing operating costs. It is also expected that the purchase price for the assets will be amortised on a straight-line basis over 10 years. It is currently anticipated that this channel will generate a sufficient number of incremental active clients such that it will be earnings enhancing in IG’s FY18 financial year, and will deliver increasing value beyond.
Peter Hetherington CEO of IG said: “We are extremely pleased to have had the opportunity to purchase what we consider to be the leading global client recruitment resource in the FX environment, an asset type where IG is very strong, but historically underweight. This brings to IG an exceptional proven platform for both acquiring new clients and further engaging our entire current global client base, along with a number of very talented people. This transaction further underpins our commitment to continuing to provide the best client experience in our industry.”
