FxPro approaches City firms as IPO plan takes shape

Currency broker FxPro has stepped up plans for a float early next year after sounding out potential advisers, the Evening Standard has learned.

The company is working with Credit Suisse over the potential initial public offering, and has been in talks in recent weeks with other City firms over raising the profile of the broker.

Chief executive, Cypriot Charalambos Psimolophitis, said “it is something that will be on our agenda in the new year and it will be a hot subject”.

The business, which began trading in 2007, is a former sponsor of Fulham and Aston Villa football clubs as well as a backer of the Monte Carlo international women’s beach volleyball tournament.

It is jointly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.

FxPro — which has around 50,000 clients and more than 200 staff — fired the starting gun on an AIM float in September 2010 which put a potential £200 million price tag on the business.

But the launch fell victim to market volatility as the eurozone debt crisis intensified and was pulled a month later.

Psimolophitis insisted that no final decision had been taken and the firm could complete a major acquisition instead of float, but added: “We have decided we need to start behaving like a public company.”

The company has a City headquarters as well as a base in Cyprus and offices in Moscow and Monaco.

Psimolophitis has hinted that he could open an office in Dubai to cater for wealthy clients in Asia, the Middle East and the Gulf.