The firms expects that the deal will be completed within a few weeks after obtaining concerned regulatory approval.
According to FXCM, the deal will boost FXCM’s institutional business and Lucid will not be a liquidity provider to FXCM’s retail agency FX offering.
Commenting on the deal, FXCM chief executive officer Drew Niv said FXCM has been transforming its institutional foreign exchange business in the past year.
"Since the fourth quarter of last year we have been migrating customers to our own in-house institutional platform which we believe has made us more competitive in the institutional space and resulted in some significant increases in our institutional volume," Niv added.
"The acquisition of Lucid – a leader in market making and trading in the institutional FX market – is a natural extension of the evolution of our institutional business."
As per the acquisition deal inked between the firms, the pay package of the deal comprises six month notes of $71.4m plus Lucid cash acquired, bearing interest at 3.5% per annum, and 9.0 million FXCM Class A common shares, of which nearly 2 million shares will be delivered at closing and the remainder subject to certain restrictions.
FXCM will receive an option to purchase an additional profit interest in Lucid’s operations in future and if such option is not exercised within four years, Lucid shareholders will have a one-time option to purchase FXCM’s interest, the acquirer said.
As of 31 December 2011, Lucid Markets had revenues of $148.9m and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $113.4m.
