FXCM poised to announce stakeholder

Sources say that FXCM will announce this week who has bought the 35% stake previously held by disgraced broker and former bucket shop Refco. It is believed that a team of venture capitalists, led by Lehman, topped the auction. At the time of writing, it was not known how much they paid for the investment, which cost Refco a total of $42 million in two tranches in 2002 (20%) and 2003 (15%). FXCM itself tried to buy the stake back for $110 million after Refco imploded in late 2005, but the price was rejected as too low by creditors. Following the $100 million investment by private equity in Oanda announced earlier this month, the stake sale will provide further indications of the valuations in the retail trading sector.