Hotspot sale spurs talk of eFX consolidation

Rumours of electronic broker EBS’s imminent takeover are rife, but a £1 billion price tag seems wide of the mark. Getting these to agree on whether tea or coffee is served at board meetings is probably difficult. Getting consensus on whether or not to sell EBS’s business, and then who to sell it to, must be a near impossibility.

The sale of electronic communications network (ECN) Hotspot has not only sparked talk of further consolidation in the FX alternative trading platform space; it has also increased the buzz surrounding EBS, the market’s dominant spot broker.

Many participants dismissed the notion that Hotspot was up for sale, purely on the basis that its main backer was Joe Lewis. According to the Sunday Times, Lewis is the UK’s 15th-richest man with a personal fortune of £2 billion.

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