Broker-Dealer IPO Time: Electronic Trading Firm Virtu Financial Tries Again

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BrokerDealer.com blog update profiles the second swing at the IPO bat by high-frequency-trading firm Virtu Financial Inc. The coverage is courtesy of TradersMag republishing of story from Bloomberg LP —

(Bloomberg) -Virtu Financial Inc., which delayed its initial public offering amid a furor over high-frequency traders, said it plans to raise as much as $314 million in a share sale.

The company will offer about 16.5 million shares at $17 to $19 apiece, according to a regulatory filing Monday. At the high end of the offering range, Virtu would be valued at about $2.6 billion, based on 136.5 million shares outstanding, the amount if all classes convert to Class A, the document shows. All of the shares are being sold by the company, rather that existing investors.

The filing precedes formal marketing of the deal, a process that was delayed after “Flash Boys,” the Michael Lewis book released in March 2014, alleged that high-speed traders, Wall Street brokerages and exchanges have rigged the $24 trillion U.S. stock market. Amid the heightened scrutiny caused by the book and various regulatory investigations, officials involved in the offering decided to shelve the deal.

Virtu’s revenue last year was $723 million according to the filing, an 8.8 percent increase from 2013. Net income rose to $190 million from $182 million the previous year. The 148- employee company, which uses computerized strategies to buy and sell everything from stocks to currencies, has had only one losing days in its six years of operation.

“Over a million times day, we’re not making money,” Chief Executive Officer Doug Cifu said at an industry conference last June. “But when you add up the volume of instruments that we trade, the tens of thousands of strategies that we trade in all the different marketplaces, it’s simply the law of large numbers, and, as a result, yes, we are profitable every day.”

Virtu has thrived as two decades of market reform and computer advances helped automated traders largely supplant humans on the floors of exchanges around the world. The company’s main business is market making, using software to provide standing offers to buy and sell stocks and other securities.

The past year has seen the departure of Virtu’s President, Chris Concannon. He left for Bats Global Markets Inc. in November and became CEO of the exchange operator on March 31.

Worldwide Expansion

Virtu started in 2008 by trading U.S. stocks and has since expanded worldwide and into assets including government bonds, currencies and futures. The firm makes markets in more than 11,000 securities and other financial products, trading on more than 225 exchanges in 34 countries, according to its filing.

Electronic market-making firms such as Virtu use automated systems to earn money off the prices that buyers are willing to pay and sellers are willing to offer. They depend on scale to make money given the compression between bids and offers during the past decade.

 

Indian Startups Gather Interest and Venture Funding From BrokerDealers Everywhere

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Brokerdealer.com blog update profiles  Indian start up companies collecting interest from brokerdealers around the world for comapny funding. This brokerdealer.com blog update is courtesy of Wall Street Journal’s article, “Venture Money Floods Into Indian Startups “.

Vikram Chopra spent the past three years building an online furniture-shopping site for Indian consumers that was funded mainly by annual capital injections from a German technology incubator.

But during the past few months, investor interest in the site, FabFurnish.com, has soared, said the 32-year-old entrepreneur, who is based in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon. Several global venture-capital firms and hedge funds have said they are interested in investing, and Mr. Chopra is now considering another round of funding that would exceed the $20 million raised so far—even though he doesn’t expect FabFurnish to be profitable for another two years and doesn’t yet need the cash.

“A few years ago, everybody wanted to see profitability upfront,” said Mr. Chopra. “Today, it is more like how much money you need to curb the competition [and] kill everyone else.”

Global money is flooding into Indian startups as investors search for a successor to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese e-commerce company that raised a record $25 billion in its initial public offering last year.

To read the entire article from the Wall Street Journal, click here.

BrokerDealer Profile: StartUps Embrace “SAFE” Approach For Investors

Vinayak Ranade, the founder of Drafted. Photo: M. Scott Brauer for The Wall Street Journal

BrokerDealer.com blog profiles a new investment document approach for Startups seeking capital from angel investors and others; courtesy of 2 April coverage by WSJ’s Adam Janofsky and Angus Loten “Startups Offer Unusual Reward for Investing; Simple Agreement for Future Equity aka “SAFE.”

When a young Boston entrepreneur sought half-a-million dollars to launch his startup last fall, he turned his back on today’s usual tactics, such as selling equity stakes or issuing convertible notes.

BrokerDealer.com global database can link you to angel investors and qualified brokerdealers

Instead, Vinayak Ranade opted to use a largely untested way for entrepreneurs to raise funds known as a Simple Agreement for Future Equity.

The agreement provided investors in Drafted Inc., Mr. Ranade’s fledging, four-employee company, no equity shares, and the investors weren’t categorized as creditors. Continue reading

BrokerDealer Crime Beat-Brokerage Execs Plead Guilty in Bond Bribery Deal

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Brokerdealer.com blog update profiles brokerdealer firm, Direct Access Partners, pleading guilty after a scheme to bribe an offical at a Venezuelan development bank for more business. This update is courtesy of Traders Magazine article, “Former Direct Access Partners Execs Sentenced in Bribery Scheme“, with an excerpt below.

Two former top executives with institutional brokerage Direct Access Partners, a firm that shut down in December of 2013 after its clearing firm, Goldman Sachs, stopped clearing its trades, have opted to plead guilty for indiscretions regarding its bond trading business.

DAP’s former chief executive, Benito Chinea, and former managing director, Joseph Demeneses, each pleaded guilty one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA and the Travel Act in connection with a scheme to bribe an official at a Venezuelan development bank, Banco de Desarollo Economico y Social de Venezuela (BANDES), in exchange for the official’s directing BANDES’ trading business to DAP.

Chinea, of Manalapan, New Jersey, and Joseph DeMeneses, of Fairfield, Connecticut, were each sentenced to four years in prison. They were also ordered to pay $3,636,432 and $2,670,612 in forfeiture, respectively, which amounts represent their earnings from the bribery scheme.

“These Wall Street executives orchestrated a massive bribery scheme with a corrupt official in Venezuela to illegally secure tens of millions of dollars in business for their firm,” Assistant Attorney General Caldwell said in a media statement. “The convictions and prison sentences of the CEO and Managing Director of a sophisticated Wall Street broker-dealer demonstrate that the Department of Justice will hold individuals accountable for violations of the FCPA and will pursue executives no matter where they are on the corporate ladder.”

Three other DAP employees and the BANDES official pleaded guilty last year for their participation in the bond trading matter.

DAP itself filed for bankruptcy.

New York-based Direct Access Partners started out in 2002 as a New York Stock Exchange floor brokerage and grew rapidly over the years in both equities and fixed income. Sources tell Traders the firm has 130 employees.

To read the entire article from Traders Magazine, click here.

BrokerDealers Beware: Don’t Blab, Not Even on SnapChat

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Lots has been said about bankers and broker-dealers blabbering via social media. The topic has helped to create plenty of compliance department angst across the brokerdealer universe. Now, thanks to the latest DealBreaker snapshot, one that also provides free advertising for social media app SnapChat, the folks here at BrokerDealer.com remind our industry audience: Think twice before you hit the ‘send’ or ‘publish’ button.

The chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland’s investment bank is leaving just weeks after messages he sent to his daughter were revealed, showing he was “bored” at work. Rory Cullinan, the RBS capo used photo-sharing app Snapchat to send images featuring captions that read: “Not a fan of board meetings xx”, “Boring meeting xx” and “Another friggin meeting”. The pictures then ended up being posted on Instagram around Father’s Day last year by the investment banker’s daughter, but only revealed in a national newspaper early this month. Mr Cullinan’s daughter had uploaded the photos with the message: “Happy Father’s Day to the indisputable king of Snapchat.” Mr Cullinan drew heavy criticism for not taking his role seriously.

For the full story, please visit DealBreaker.com