Danish investment bank Saxo Bank has completed the acquisition of the Dutch stock brokerage company BinckBank for €424m (£390m).
Saxo Bank and BinckBank will now begin the work of integrating the two companies to share technology infrastructure and add additional products and services for an optimal SaxoExperience.
Closure of the deal marks a milestone for Saxo Bank as it will now serve about 860,000 clients, holding about €46bn (£42.3bn) in client assets. With improved scale and reduction in cost and complexity, the bank aims to invest in digital client experience and to expand its product offering while delivering relevant and intuitive platforms and services.
Saxo Bank CEO and founder Kim Fournais said: “We are very pleased to have completed the acquisition of BinckBank with strong shareholder support and regulatory approvals. The acquisition is a win-win for all parties, clients, employees, shareholders and the societies we operate in.
“By joining forces, we have what it takes to become the leading global provider of state-of-the-art multi-asset trading and investment solutions – truly democratising trading and investment.
“The investment and trading industry is undergoing a major transformation facing new regulation, rising expectations for better digital client experience, ongoing margin compression and a great need for multi-asset trading capabilities. These trends call for scale, and the successful acquisition of BinckBank is a quantum leap forward in terms of creating scale which is crucial for our long-term success.”
Saxo Bank will own 95% stake in BinckBank
Saxo Bank holds about 95.14% of the share capital in BinckBank on a fully diluted basis.
In December 2018, when Saxo Bank first proposed the deal to BinckBank, it offered an all-cash public offer of €6.35 (£5.85) (cum dividend) per share of BinckBank, totalling €424m (£390m). The offer represented a 35% premium over the closing price of BinckBank on 14 December last year.
Last month, the Danish bank secured all the regulatory approvals including the Dutch Central Bank and the European Central Bank, for acquiring the Dutch stock-brokerage company.
BinckBank CEO Vincent Germyns said: “Today represents an important milestone towards BinckBank’s twentieth anniversary. Strong support from both shareholders and regulators shows that we made the right decision to join forces.
“BinckBank and Saxo Bank are working closely together on the way forward since the announcement of the takeover bid in December 2018. Our starting point was and remains the achievement of optimum customer benefits.
“Now it is full steam ahead in delivering the ultimate digital customer experience in order to continuously help them in realising their financial ambitions. Thanks to Saxo Bank we can further expand our product range and offer more intuitive platforms in the future.”
