The completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and closing conditions. StoneX will acquire 100% of Octo Finances SA shares once complete.

The move is designed to expand StoneX’s capabilities in fixed income and grow its presence in Europe, with a particular focus on France.

 “This acquisition further expands our growing distribution network by over 500 clients, including banks, insurance companies, private debt funds, mutual funds and private wealth managers,” said Anthony Di Ciollo, global head of fixed income at StoneX.

“Octo Finances is a highly respected French brokerage firm known for its excellent client service. We are committed to fully supporting its growth and extending our products and capabilities to its high-quality client base.”

Fixed income broker Octo Finances is in Paris. It specialises in bond and convertible sales, debt capital markets and credit research.

 “Joining StoneX is a natural fit for Octo Finances,” said Talabor Szabo, chief executive and co-founder of Octo Finances.

“StoneX’s commitment to innovation and client service aligns perfectly with our values and vision for the future. We are thrilled about the new opportunities this acquisition will bring and are eager to work together to enhance our offerings and grow our presence in the market.”

StoneX has been ramping up its fixed income offering with several new hires in recent months, most likely in preparation for its upcoming deal.

Among the new hires is former head of trading at Incline Global Management, Evan Halpern, who was named managing director of fixed income outsourced trading in January.

More recently, StoneX Group appointed Simon Pickworth – former MUFG – a s an institutional fixed income trader for the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) region in April.

The post StoneX to acquire fixed income broker Octo Finances appeared first on The TRADE.

Specifically, the offering will provide increased transparency and liquidity, as well as lower transaction costs.

“Over the past decade, the loan market has seen rapid growth, but liquidity has not kept pace. StoneX LoanMatch will address this gap by providing a platform that facilitates client-to-client liquidity, enabling lenders to manage their portfolios more proactively,” said the firm.

Institutional clients and banks will be able to access liquidity efficiently and securely through participating in open matching sessions, buying and selling orders at a specified mid-price – set by StoneX.

Read more: Fireside Friday with… StoneX’s Philip Smith

The platform’s key features include: access to a large pool of liquidity, conflict-free trading, transparent costs, market transparency, accurate pricing and ‘efficient’ settlement.

In addition, users are ensured anonymity when it comes to trade direction and amount until execution. Post-trade, only StoneX, acting as the principal, will know the client’s identity.

“Importantly, clients can do this without revealing their identity, the direction of their trade, or order size, ensuring complete anonymity and confidentiality up until the point of execution.  Trades are executed with a pre-agreed transaction cost, providing clear and transparent pricing for all participants,” explained StoneX.

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At the forefront are still the knock-on effects of Brexit. There was this unreasonable expectation that the UK was going to become the Singapore of Europe. We don’t have equivalence but there’s never been this bonfire of the regulations. Financial services were well and truly affected by Brexit and we’ve had to put in place duplicate infrastructure and presence, which is inefficient. We ran everything from London and passported services throughout the EU. Now we’ve got a physical presence in Europe, and we probably have 200 people who previously would have done jobs that operated out of London. We’re keeping on top of what benefits we can achieve out of new progress between the EU and the UK but we’re working on the assumption that we’re never going to get back what we had.

As markets move forward you are going to have a different set up in the UK versus the EU. Whether it’s your trade reporting or your allocations, everything must be done in duplicate. How is that helpful to a company like ours? There’s only so much you’re able to outsource back to say the UK or back to third party organisation and so you’re having to replicate a mini version of what you have in London or in the US. That’s an issue because you become a more fragmented setup. We went down the Brexit route where we were looking at setting up a new entity in Ireland but also looking at acquiring a company that would have the necessary licenses first. Ultimately we found a company in Luxembourg and stopped proceeding with the Irish set up. With hindsight I wish we hadn’t. It’s hard in Europe. Employment law is very distant from that in London.

If you asked me before the government signed a new agreement relating to Northern Ireland, I’d say it was going to get worse but there does seem to be a movement now. There’s a push to improve and formalise relations and it’s things like clearing and access to markets that are being focused on. I don’t think the government is going down this Singapore in Europe approach because then there’s no return and equivalence will never happen.

What are your thoughts on new proposed clearing regulation?

EU regulators are in negotiations around moving clearing activity of Euro interest rate swaps away from London to EU-based CCPs. That is transferable but it reduces efficiency. You’re talking about moving trillions of dollars in clearing from LCH Ltd to other EU CCPs. You’re then splitting the efficiency of the market because as there’s such a large volume going through it you can make it relatively inexpensive for people to clear. If you split it, it then becomes more expensive and it becomes less efficient. It becomes this duplicative issue we’re seeing across many areas. Because of this, you must charge more to cover your costs and therefore the underlying clients will end up paying for it – they will be paying for a less efficient landscape.

How is the provider landscape evolving and what is driving this?

Access to markets is no longer as easy as it used to be. We probably had 5,000 clients come to us over the last four to five years who have been kicked out by banks – a lot of that is clearing business. The banks want clients to have many different things, where that revenue comes from – or they’ll set a limit based upon size the company and say we will only deal with clients who have a balance sheet of more than X. We pick up the huge amount of that business that is discarded.

There are fewer players in this market. Clearing businesses, if you look at the US, I’d say five years ago there probably 400 FCMs where now there’s probably 60. That’s a drastic reduction. You don’t have a reduced level of activity; just more being cleared through fewer players. As the banks pull out of direct clearing for anyone other than those core clients who they view across several products, those other clients have to go somewhere.

Take prime services in London. We’re seeing a mixture of two of the big players in that market shut down because they’re Russia-owned. You’ve got banks once again raising the bar. We have the capability to provide access to everything they require but we’ve never done it as a holistic prime service offering. If you want access to commodities, equities, fixed income – they’re all individual corridors. There’s an opportunity for us now because if the banks are pushing for everything above one billion there’s a 500 million to one billion market where there’s no one servicing that. The whole landscape has shifted from some of the major exits that have been seen over the last year.

Do you expect regulators to be more cooperative in the future?

The feedback I’ve had was the regulators were in a state of suspension in terms of any progress. I’m sensing that now that the Northern Ireland protocol has been put in place there’s been a thawing of the relationship. There’s now communication. There was a great relationship between the FCA and BAFIN – the two the leading regulators in Europe – wherein they collaborated very well together, and Brexit severed that. I hope there’s more interaction with the FCA and the other EU regulators going forward.

We operate out of Luxembourg, with branches in Germany and we’re looking to move that licence to Germany so that we have everything run out of Germany under a BAFIN lead licence. It is a very slow process, and we have licence applications that we’ve done in Singapore which took a long time. In Columbia, we’ve got a payment licence which took three years longer than we thought, and Brazil was probably a couple years longer than anyone anticipated.

These things do take a long time, but they do seem to be getting slower. It is harder for people to enter the market. We’ve grown significantly over the last 15-20 years, and I don’t think we could have done the same thing having started today. It’s much harder for people to begin, and then when you get large banks, they’re like tankers. There’s so much oversight and bureaucracy.

The post Fireside Friday with… StoneX’s Philip Smith appeared first on The TRADE.

The move will allow StoneX Financial’s clients to adopt and maintain environmentally conscious business practices, manage risk effectively and achieve regulatory compliance.

StoneX said the contracts span markets including sustainable energy, carbon emissions, renewable fuels, and pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

“Whether the goal is to achieve carbon neutrality or build out their own ESG-focused investment products, StoneX continues to respond to the needs of clients worldwide.” 

“We’ve seen client demand for these environmental contracts increase significantly due to evolving environmental policies and the ongoing focus towards ESG practices,” said Dave Smoldt, president of StoneX Financial’s commodities division.

“Adding to our extensive suite of commodity-focused contracts allows our clientele to further expand upon their environmentally focused goals. Gaining access to this new exchange allows us to serve a wider range of clients, from ESG ETF advisors to the utility provider looking to hedge their operational risk, using these futures and options contracts.”

With increasing interests in corporate sustainability and carbon neutrality, Nodal Exchange’s renewable fuels and pollutants contracts allow for active participation in the space. Energy refiners, distributors, producers to energy traders and ESG fund managers are among the users of these products.

“StoneX’s institutional clientele seeking exposure to carbon offsets can now meet that need with the same firm that delivers access to all other commodities,” said Greg Greves, managing director of clearing and execution services at StoneX Financial.

“Whether the goal is to achieve carbon neutrality or build out their own ESG-focused investment products, StoneX continues to respond to the needs of clients worldwide.” 

The post StoneX to provide access to environmental options and futures contracts via Nodal Exchange appeared first on The TRADE.

The US-based brokerage has established a fixed income sales and trading desk in Singapore, with plans to expand into Australia and Hong Kong – building on the firm’s practice of leveraging local expertise across over 40 offices globally, to offer clients enhanced access to its products and services.

StoneX’s Asia-based desk will provide clients in the APAC region with trading and execution advisory services and cross-border facilitation across the entire credit spectrum.

The new desk will also help maximise pockets of credit liquidity in an increasingly strained market against an adverse macro backdrop.

StoneX’s global fixed income team has product expertise ranging from emerging markets, investment-grade, high yield, and distressed situations, and its new in Singapore-based desk will allow the firm to fully leverage its global distribution network while also serving clients on a 24-hour basis.

“Adding a strong fixed income offering in Asia is a significant step toward building a full-service, global, fixed income offering and advances our goal of providing global, 24-hour, fixed income trading,” said Anthony Diciollo, global co-head of fixed income at StoneX.

“With the strength of our US and EMEA offerings, it was a natural progression for us to utilise the geographical diversity of StoneX to further build in APAC.”

Robert Hong has been hired to lead the APAC fixed income desk, bringing considerable experience in the global credit markets to StoneX.

Most recently, Hong served as managing director for Cantor Fitzgerald, overseeing the firm’s fixed income division in Singapore.

Before that, Hong served at Deutsche Bank for over 20 years, responsible for Asia credit and emerging markets trading operations.

“Our fixed income desk brings yet another product suite to the APAC region and emphasises StoneX’s commitment to regional specialisation within a global product offering,” said Greg Kallinikos, chief executive of StoneX.

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Olivetree Financial is currently at the centre of merger talks, the TRADE can exclusively reveal.

One of the interested parties is said to be New York-based financial services firm StoneX. It is unclear whether negotiations will result in a deal, and whether it will be a full buyout, merger or a potential joint venture. 
 
Olivetree recently conducted a strategic review of its operations in the US, resulting in a number of job losses, according to a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is private.  
 
The broker is choosing to focus on European markets as this is where it sees more opportunity in the near term. It still employs a number of people in New York, the person added. 
 
An Olivetree spokesperson declined to comment. StoneX also declined to discuss the matter when contacted by The TRADE, beyond noting that the firm does not comment on “employee movement”.  

The number of independent brokerages in Europe has been falling in recent years following a wave of consolidation. TP ICAP, the world’s largest inter-dealer broker, acquired Louis Capital, an equities and fixed income specialist, in July 2020. In November of the same year, Makor Group announced that it had entered into a strategic alliance with rival Churchill Capital. 
 
A boom in deal-making has also seen firms adding headcount to teams that specialise in mergers and acquisitions. M&A in Europe reached a 14-year high in 2021 and deals involving European targets totalled $1.4 trillion, an increase of 46% over the previous year, according to data from Refinitiv. 
 
The surge in M&A activity worldwide has been fuelled in part by private equity funds and the growth of special purpose acquisition vehicles (SPACs), Refinitiv said. 
 
Olivetree recently added to its event driven team in London with two senior hires from BTIG, as reported by The TRADE. Greg Levett and David Abraham joined the broker in September 2021, while Tim Caulton also re-joined the firm in July. 
 
The firm also made a number of hires in the US around the same time, with the appointment of Richard Orlando and Robert Weibel, also event driven specialists. 
 
Event driven strategies seek to profit from corporate events, including merger and acquisitions, restructurings, and spin offs. 
 
StoneX, formerly known as INTL FCStone, describes itself as an institutional-grade financial services network. The company’s London-based subsidiary, StoneX Financial, joined the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and its pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF), Turquoise, as a member in May of last year, in a move designed to expand its offering in cross-border equities and boost its cross-asset capabilities.  

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Mary Stone will take on the role, bringing two decades of experience to StoneX, having led banking teams and structuring loan strategies at various top industry names.

Most recently, Stone served as managing director of global mortgages and securitised products at Merrill Lynch, part of Bank of America, where she oversaw the business unit responsible for residential mortgage transactions.

Prior to that, Stone held various positions at ICP Capital, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In her new position at StoneX, Stone will manage a team focused on structured credit banking products with plans to introduce new offerings including collateralised loan obligations, syndicated loans and other structured credit banking products.

“Mary’s wealth of institutional experience from her time at Bank of America and other top-tier institutions, will undoubtedly make her an invaluable asset to our firm,” said Anthony Di Ciollo, co-head of the Fixed income division at StoneX.

“We look forward to welcoming her to StoneX as she spearheads the development of our new Structured Credit Banking team. We are excited to continue to build on the growth of Fixed Division by giving our clients access to additional product lines.”

Stone’s appointment follows that of Steve Guihan, who joined StoneX’s outsourced trading team last month. Guihan joined StoneX after most recently serving as an execution trader for Mistell Management for close to three years.

“Mary provides a unique insight to the market working with multiple types of structured credit products over the past 20 years. In addition to her skillset, the initiatives she has been a part of and led mirror the same values that StoneX represents,” said Brian Vescio, head of structured credit products at StoneX.

“She will no doubt be an asset to our structured credit business by providing our clients access to a new segment of the market.”

The post StoneX appoints new head of structured credit banking products from BofA appeared first on The TRADE.

The former global head of trading at Soros Fund Management has joined the outsourced trading team at US-based brokerage StoneX.

Steve Guihan joins the global macro desk based in New York, part of StoneX’s outsourced trading team, with over 30 years of industry experience having most recently served as an execution trader for Mistell Management for nearly three years. 

Previously in his career, Guihan spent four years at Graham Capital and notably 24 years as the global head of trading at Soros Fund Management.

Alongside his appointment, StoneX has hired former managing director at Cambridge Associates, Steven Grabowski, to head up its outsourced services consulting team in Florida.

Grabowski joins StoneX after most recently serving as a consultant at Prime Buchholz for nearly two years. Prior to his most recent role, he served for almost 12 years as a managing director at Cambridge Associates.  

The appointments follow a series of similar senior buy-side moves to outsourced trading desks, most recently with the former global trading head at Morgan Stanley Investment Management appointed as head of the newly launched outsourced trading desk at UBS, Execution Hub, in June.

A new multi asset outsourced trading firm launched by the former head of fixed income trading at Nordea Investment Management Brett Chappell, and former senior fixed income trader at the asset manager, Bart Nuyts, also went live recently.

The post StoneX appoints 30 year hedge fund trader to outsourced trading team   appeared first on The TRADE.

US-based brokerage StoneX has joined the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and its pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF), Turquoise, as a member.

The move will allow the London-based subsidiary of StoneX Group to expand its trading offering in cross-border equities and its cross-asset capabilities. 

As a member of LSE and Turquoise, StoneX can also provide more streamlined onboarding processes and comprehensive offering to its clients, including banks, institutions, family offices and retail traders. 

“Through its membership, StoneX and its clients will be able to benefit from access to LSEG’s deep, international pool of liquidity and innovative trading services,” said Dr. Robert Barnes, group head of securities trading and chief executive of Turquoise at London Stock Exchange Group. 

According to statistics seen by The TRADE last month, lit volumes on the Turquoise Europe MTF have soared since the venue was launched in the Netherlands post-Brexit. Lit average daily volume at Turquoise Europe increased by 10.1% from January to February and then by a further 20.5% from February to March.

Head of Turquoise Europe, Adam Wood, told The TRADE that the growth in the lit order book in the first three months of the year had been driven by its liquidity provision, retail participation and new demand from market participants for securities from the central and eastern Europe (CEE) markets.

“London Stock Exchange and Turquoise memberships are an important step for StoneX, not only to be able to more efficiently serve our local UK client base, but also to expand our global equities infrastructure and execute our broader corporate objective of delivering seamless access to the best sources of liquidity in every equity market,” said Jacob Rappaport, managing director and global head of equities at StoneX Financial Inc.

The post StoneX Financial joins LSE and Turquoise as new member appeared first on The TRADE.

Known as Emerging Manager Platform, the service combines StoneX’s execution services including multi-asset, global connectivity, high-touch expertise, and middle- and back-office support via a single platform.

“Emerging asset managers increasingly turn to outsourced trading desks to meet the challenges of heightened best execution requirements and market structure changes,” said Andrew Caplan, head of outsourced trading at INTL Fillmore Advisors, a StoneX subsidiary. “Our team provides a premium service to these managers, offering our experience and professional buy-side traders as a solution for managers who require additional headcount and trading bandwidth.”

The new Emerging Manager Platform will connect clients with buy-side traders and provide access to more than 150 global brokers, banks, and resource providers. StoneX executes orders as a client’s ‘authorised trader’ with counterparty attribution, and real-time market insights and performance metrics.   

“StoneX’s decades of experience across regions and asset classes, diverse product knowledge and strong sell-side connectivity, and our culture of accountability and confidentiality, allow us to become trusted partners that positively impact our clients’ businesses,” Caplan added.

In June, INTL FCStone confirmed it was rebranding to become StoneX Group shortly after completing its acquisition of online trading services provider GAIN Capital.

The move to rebrand was approved by the majority of shareholders at INTL FCStone and took effect on 6 July. It also followed a record 183% increase in revenues year-on-year during the second quarter of this year at INTL FCStone.

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