GK Group Enters ASIC Territory by Acquiring Australia’s Fair Markets
Fair Markets, formerly ILQ, is being acquired by GK Group as a way into the Australian CFD market
Global Kapital Group recently reached an acquisition agreement with the Australia-based brokerage company Fairmarkets Trading and entered the Australian market.
As of the completion of the acquisition, the Group will offer its services in Australia.
GK Group is a multinational FinTech group providing Brokerage, Alternative Finance, Digital Banking and Corporate Banking services through its digital platforms in over 100 countries. It is the holdings company which operates GKFX.
With this acquisition, GK Group receives an ASIC license and brings its brokerage services to Australian clients.
Commenting on the acquisition, GK Group’s brokerage CEO Gökhan Erkıralp said: “We are pleased to have completed the acquisition of Fairmarkets Trading which marks an important milestone for our group. I believe this acquisition will strengthen our global presence and bring us one step closer to our goals.”
“A healthy combination of global experience and local expertise is the driving force behind our consistent expansion, and we are dedicated to delivering the best possible customer experience in every market we operate in” said Mr Erkıralp.
“The future of trading and investment heavily depends on constant innovation as the world is becoming more and more digitalized and people’s expectations shift towards a simpler and faster experience. We aim to fulfill all modern-day traders’ demands with simple and effective digital financial solutions” he said.
“we are happy to offer our services in Australia and very excited to step into a new market that has lots of potential” he concluded.
In November 2018 during a meeting in Sydney, FinanceFeefs spoke at length with James O’Neill, who is a qualified lawyer with his Master of Laws alma mater being from University of Sydney, and Executive Director of Fair Markets (formerly ILQ).
Mr O’Neill, who became a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors in 2017, detailed his interactions with two of Australia’s longest serving premiers, John Howard and Tony Abbott.
Mr Howard, who served as the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, therefore being the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister, behind only Sir Robert Menzies, who was in office for over 18 years. Prime Minister Howard was leader of the Liberal Party from 1985 to 1989 and from 1995 to 2007, and Mr Abbott, the 28th Prime Minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 2009 to 2015. He served as Leader of the Opposition from 2009 to 2013. Abbott was first elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Warringah in 1994.
It was of great interest to gain an insight into the personalities of the two leaders, with Mr O’Neill explaining “John I have only met a couple of times but is someone whom I have much admiration. Tony I know very well and I actually ran for vice Chairman of his governance board but missed out by eight votes.”
From the perspective of our industry, which is a leading-edge technologically focused business which is often responsible for making tremendous advances in the entire financial markets system, it is encouraging indeed to see commitment from executives who have interests in furthering the cause of pragmatic policy as well as making innovations in one of the most important business sectors in the world.
