U.S. brokerage BGC Partners has agreed to purchase London rival RP Martin, the latest step towards the consolidation of an industry under pressure from tough new rules for its traditional banking clients, low volatility and rock-bottom interest rates.BGC said on Monday that it had acquired the UK assets of smaller, unlisted rival RP Martin and would take over its other businesses based in Sweden and the Netherlands in 2015. It gave no financial details.RP Martin failed to comment on the sale.Interdealer brokers -- which make money by matching buyers and sellers of bonds, swaps and currencies -- are battling major changes. These include new, more conservative capital rules that have prompted investment banking clients to cut back certain trading activities, and efforts to push more derivatives trading onto electronic platforms.
BGC Partners, Inc. (BGC) is a global brokerage company primarily servicing the wholesale financial markets, specializing in the brokering of a range of products, including fixed income securities, interest rate swaps, foreign exchange, equities, equity derivatives, credit derivatives, commercial real estate, property derivatives, commodities, futures and structured products. Shares of BGCP fell by 3.73% or $-0.33/share to $8.51. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $5.70 and as high as $9.12. On average, 967075 shares of BGCP exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 888505.
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