Marex in talks to buy OTCex Group’s voice brokerage activities
London-headquartered commodities broker Marex is understood to be in advanced stages of negotiations for acquiring OTCex Group’s voice brokerage activities.
The exclusive discussions concern the proposed sale of the brokerage business mostly carried out through investment firms : HPC, OTCex Hong Kong, and OTCex LLC.
Headquartered in Paris, OTCex voice brokerage services include businesses based in London, Dubai, Hong Kong, New York, Paris, Milan, Tel-Aviv and Lisbon, and employs approximately 200 staff worldwide.
Both OTCex and HPC brands operate as French financial companies authorized by Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution, as well as by Autorité des Marchés Financiers. HPC also has the authorization to operate as an Organized Trading Facility (OTF).
Marex said the deal represents a superb opportunity of corporate backing and consolidation with a worldwide growing leading player. It should therefore pave the way for future ambitious business development steps by benefiting from access to Marex’s global infrastructure and balance sheet.
The close of these transactions is subject to consultations currently underway with OTCex Group’s employees’ representative bodies. Full and definitive completion would thereafter be subject to prior approval by all relevant regulators.
OTCex Group is the product of two mergers. The first was in 2005 between Paresco, a French investment firm broking listed equity and interest rates products and HPC, a European broker operating mainly in money and interest-rate markets. This entity then merged in 2006 with OTCex, an inter-dealer broker specializing in index and single stock options.
These mergers have brought OTCex Group a client base of over 600 institutions, including banks, asset managers, fund managers, hedge funds and market makers. Since its foundation, OTCex Group’s strategic focus has always been to create a multi-product brokerage service on an international scale.
From March 2021 Marex Spectron has shorted its name to Marex. The Marex Spectron name dates back to 2011, when Marex acquired Spectron, the OTC energy broker. Since then, the business has vastly increased in scale, scope and headcount, with multiple new offerings and business lines.
This change, however, had no bearing on the company’s legal registered entities which remain unchanged. Subsidiary companies also retain their existing brand names, whilst the Spectron brand continues within the energy brokerage division.
Revenues in the commodities broking sector were in general squeezed since the 2008 global crisis due to harsh regulations and the overall shift to electronic trading, leading some to questions about the future of the industry.
