Singapore Exchange (SGX) has paid US$25 million for a 20% stake in BidFX, a specialised trading platform for global FX markets.
The deal also sees SGX get the option for additional shares to gain a controlling interest in BidFX, which was spun off as a division of TradingScreen in early 2017.
BidFX provides a cloud-based front-end trading platform to help hedge funds, asset managers and regional banks trade, improve access to liquidity, generate alpha and simplify workflows. Its liquidity aggregation platform supports FX spot, swaps and forwards for G10 and Asian currencies.
SGX says the investment is in line with its strategy to build pillars of growth across multiple asset classes. Since the exchange introduced forex futures in November 2013, over US$2 trillion in aggregate notional has been traded across its entire FX franchise.
Loh Boon Chye, CEO SGX, who joins the BidFX board, says: "FX is one of our key growth pillars and we are excited to strengthen our service proposition to the market.
"With this investment, we have an opportunity to offer our suite of Asian FX futures alongside the over-the-counter products offered on the BidFX platform, bringing together both pools of liquidity."