"A leading contender for sale by FXCM is its minority stake in FastMatch Inc., a separate company that operates an electronic currency-trading platform, people familiar with the matter said. FastMatch matches buy and sell orders among banks, hedge funds and other asset managers. The majority of FXCM’s revenue is from retail currency trading.
FXCM estimates its roughly 30% FastMatch stake could fetch about $70 million, some of the people said. Potential buyers have approached FXCM to express interest in assets including FastMatch, they said.
FastMatch was launched in mid-2012 and started out relying heavily on flow from FXCM’s retail currency-trading business to get a foothold in the market. FastMatch, which is located inside FXCM’s offices in lower Manhattan, has shed much of that dependence as it has launched new services directed at institutional clients.
FastMatch’s chief executive, Dmitri Galinov, said in an interview Friday that FastMatch is in the process of separating its trading entity from FXCM and aims to have that entity fully independent in the next month or two. He declined to discuss FXCM’s plans."
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