Significant milestone materially expands product set and footprint for the combined business
IG Group Holdings plc, a global leader in online trading and tastytrade, Inc. (‘tastytrade’), the fast-growing online brokerage and investor education platform, are pleased to announce the completion of a $1 billion landmark partnership.
“This transaction marks an important milestone in the delivery of IG’s growth strategy, diversifying our product offering and significantly strengthening our global footprint. ”
The partnership significantly increases the scale and relevance of IG’s existing US business, resulting in a prominent position in the high-growth retail options trading market through tastytrade’s market-leading online brokerage and trading education platform, used by over 105,000 self-directed investors with active accounts. IG’s powerful global reach provides tastytrade with a platform for international expansion.
The transaction is made up of $300 million in cash and the issuance of 61,000,000 new ordinary shares in IG Group (the “Consideration Shares”) to tastytrade shareholders.
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With an estimated 1.5 million retail traders, the US options and futures market is larger than the global CFD/FX and European Turbo markets combined. The newly-combined business is underpinned by a shared track record of innovation, client-centric philosophy and leadership in financial markets and is well positioned to take advantage of the exceptional structural growth of self-directed investing in the US. It will deliver a powerful service that is designed to educate and empower ambitious investors as they navigate the financial markets.
The management teams for IG and tastytrade will remain in place, reflecting the winning combination of a shared client-centric ethos and ambitious forward-looking strategy across the business. Key tastytrade management shareholders, comprising Tom Sosnoff (Co-CEO, tastytrade), Kristi Ross (Co-CEO and President, tastytrade), Scott Sheridan (CEO, tastyworks) and Linwood Ma (CTO, tastytrade), have joined the IG senior leadership team and will continue in their current roles to help drive further growth in tastytrade, and will collectively own approximately 5.7% of the enlarged share capital of IG.
June Felix, Chief Executive of IG, commented, “This transaction marks an important milestone in the delivery of IG’s growth strategy, diversifying our product offering and significantly strengthening our global footprint.
I am thrilled to welcome tastytrade to the IG Group family. This innovative, high growth, high margin business gives us immediate scale in the largest listed options and futures market in the world.
tastytrade offers something that is completely new: it has truly disrupted the market by combining content that is unique and entertaining with deeply quantitative and technical analysis. This transaction will significantly enhance client choice and opportunity as we focus on providing innovative educational content, a broad suite of products and tools to empower their financial decision making and give them the best possible trading experience.”
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Tom Sosnoff, Founder and co-CEO of tastytrade, said, “The completion of this deal is a milestone moment for tastytrade. For the past decade, we have worked tirelessly to build a trading ecosystem that challenges self-directed retail investors to think and trade strategically. Our partnership with IG gives us the opportunity to contribute this expertise as part of a global offering that reflects the scope of our ambitions.”
Kristi Ross, co-Founder and co-CEO of tastytrade, said, “The synergies between tastytrade and IG are clear. Together, our mission is to deliver a sophisticated, first-in-class trading experience that puts our clients at the heart of all we do. This distinctive, differentiated offering will allow IG and tastytrade to capitalise on the long-term, structural democratisation of global financial markets.”
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