Japanese retail FX broker ArenaFX changes name after acquisition by Excite

Japanese retail FX broker ArenaFX is changing its name, effective today, the company announced today. The new name of the broker is Excite One Co., Ltd, reflecting the name of the new owner of the brokerage – online services provider Excite Japan Co., Ltd. (TYO:3754).

Excite announced the acquisition of a controlling stake in ArenaFX in the end of September 2017. The deal involved the acquisition of 4,702 shares of the outstanding share capital of the broker and is valued at JPY 159.9 million. Following the acquisition, Excite owns a stake of 88.9% in ArenaFX.

Nippon RAD Inc. (TYO:4736), the previous owner of the controlling stake in ArenaFX explained back then that the deal will allow it to focus on its core technology operations. It added that it will continue to support ArenaFX with regard to financial technology.

In its announcement on the acquisition, Excite underlined that it aims to diversify its offering and stressed the importance of the social trading services provided by ArenaFX. Indeed, ArenaFX is the single Japanese FX broker offering ZuluTrade.

Today, ArenaFX also emphasized that it will not make any changes to its offering although it has a new owner and that it will continue to offer ZuluTrade.

Let’s recall, however, that recently there have been changes in the offering of ArenaFX. In August this year, the company said it would stop offering the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform to its clients. The company attributed the move to “Forex restructuring” and set September 30, 2017, as the deadline for closing all positions on the platform.

The Japanese retail Forex sector has not provided us with that many examples of M&A deals over the past years, apart from some notable exceptions such as the acquisition of FXCM Japan by Rakuten Securities, a subsidiary of Rakuten Inc (TYO:4755), in 2015, and the acquisition of the retail clients of Planex Trade by Forex.com Japan in 2014.