This day in history: April 15, 2014 – Alpari exits Indian market, takes a look at a possible IPO

In the third part of a new series on FinanceFeeds, we take a look back at “This day in history” within the world of FX. Every Friday morning, we take a look back through the various groundbreaking developments that continue to take place in our fascinating industry.

Two years in the lifetime of most businesses is not a very long period of time, especially for those in the traditional manufacturing sector.

Development cycles and corporate initiatives in many large companies with global client bases that span across retail and commercial segments traditionally averaged 7 years, however in today’s rapidly evolving electronic trading sector, the development cycle of a new product is approximately 3 months, and company direction and ethos can change year to year.

Alpari, a prominent name across the entire world during the beginning of the second decade of this millenium, led from its Russian origins to become a global business at the hands of Daniel Skowronski, the firm’s first CEO who took the company into several markets across the world.

The company was originally established in Kazan, Russia, in 1998 by Daniel Skowronski, who became the first CEO, alongside Andrey Vedikhin, Andrey Dashin and Gleb Petrov.

Since Mr. Skowronski’s departure from the company two years ago when he was appointed Managing Director of OANDA Corporation’s European operations, Alpari refocused its efforts on Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (the former Soviet Union member states and Eastern Europe.)

On this day, two years ago, Alpari closed down its Indian operations that had employed about 60 people to prepare the company for an expected IPO in the following year.

Indeed, although the reasons provided for closing down the operations in India at the time centered on a proposed IPO in order to list Alpari on a prominent European stock exchange as a public company, which never materialized.

Alpari’s exit from the Indian market made national news in India, the former CEO of Alpari India Pramit Brahmbhatt at the time having explained to Indian news source The Hindu “India is the latest office to have been closed by Alpari, however the firm has previously withdrawn local operations from the U.S. and Germany and, therefore, will not cater to Indian customers anymore.”

Mr. Brahmbhatt moved on  to take control of Veracity Group of companies as Group CEO. Veracity, an Indian company with its head office in Ahmedabad, has interests in financial services, including equities, currencies, commodities and research and advisory services.