INTL FCStone Mitigates Brexit Risk With FX Takeover

INTL FCStone, a risk management and advisory service provider for players in the financial industry, announced a new acquisition to strengthen its small business foreign exchange and hedging offering.

The company said in a press release Monday (Jan. 13) it has reached an agreement to acquire Germany-based GIROXX, which provides payment and FX hedging solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The takeover will enable INTL FCStone to connect GIROXX’s existing SMB customer base to its advisory services in commodities. INTL FCStone also noted the acquisition completes a string of takeovers as part of the company’s broader restructuring, an initiative launched by the company to safeguard its existing customers against risks linked to Brexit.

The company noted in its announcement that closing of the acquisition is conditional upon the approval of the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin).

“Our objective is to offer [SMBs] the ability to hedge all parts of their production processes, and to allow these corporates to have access to a digital payments and hedging platform,” said INTL FCStone Global Payments Division Global Head Carsten Hils. “We are clearly one of the first in this market segment to offer such a comprehensive offering, and we are excited about this opportunity.”

Added GIROXX Founders and Managing Directors Klaus Hoffmann and Jörg Sonnenschein, “We are very excited about becoming part of such a successful financial group, which we see as essential to expand our product. Additionally, we gain the resources to offer hedging services on a multi assets basis with a balance sheet which will help solidify our client base and to expand at a faster pace.”

INTL FCStone’s Global Payments Division maintains an estimated 350 correspondent banking relationships. In 2017, the division joined SWIFT’s gpi (global payments innovation initiative) to support faster, seamless cross-border transactions and address some of the biggest points of friction in traditional correspondent banking.