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City Index Group Limited ('City Index') Acquisition of FX Solutions LLC ('FX Solutions')

London (ots/PRNewswire)

City Index Group, a leading provider of
retail derivative trading services including CFDs, FX and spread
betting, is pleased to announce the acquisition of FX Solutions LLC
(http://www.fxsolutions.com) in an all equity transaction.
FX Solutions, based in Saddle River, New Jersey, provides a
premier retail foreign exchange ('FX') electronic trading platform
for all major currency pairs. FX Solutions was founded in 2001 by
Thomas Plaut and Robert Cortright, two industry leading executives
with over 40 years combined experience in foreign exchange trading.
Messrs Plaut and Cortright will continue in central roles in the
enlarged group.
FX Solutions has been recognized for 3 consecutive years by Inc.
magazine as a part of the annual Inc. 500 "America's Fastest Growing
Private Companies" list. Only 11 of 500 companies achieved that
status, and in 2007, FX Solutions was the only retail FX broker to
make the list.
Between December 2005 and December 2007 FX Sol's EBITDA (earnings
before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) grew at a
cumulative annual rate of over 60 per cent. In early 2007 Francisco
Partners, the US private equity house, invested over US$100 million
in FX Solutions.
The combined Group will employ over 400 staff across 6 offices in
the UK, United States, China, Singapore and Australia and has
partnership relationships throughout Europe, North America, Australia
and the Middle East, transacting approximately 1.6 million trades per
month. The Group is regulated in Europe, the United States, Singapore
and Australia.
Mr Clive Cooke, CEO City Index, commented on the transaction: "The
FX Solutions team have built a highly successful business with
clients in over 50 countries and we are delighted to be able to bring
our two companies together. This transaction will enhance and
strengthen our current product offerings to our retail clients and
institutional business partners and accelerate our expansion into new
geographical markets."
Thomas Plaut Co-founder and Co-CEO of FX Solutions, commented: "We
are very pleased to be joining the City Index Group, an ideal partner
to take our business to the next stage. City Index's diverse and
worldwide operations will open new opportunities for our business and
we know the merger with City Index is going to be a positive for all
involved - especially our customers."
"We are delighted to be participating in this combination, which
creates a new, multi-product leader with best in class technology,
serving a rapidly growing, global market," said David Golob, Partner
with Francisco Partners.
About City Index Group
City Index is a leading provider of CFD, foreign exchange, options
and, in the UK, spread betting services. The Group trades primarily
under the City Index, Finspreads and IFX brands and also provides a
fully outsourced white label solution to numerous partners.
In September 2006, City Index acquired IFX Group plc ('IFX'), the
London-based international business which provides institutional and
retail clients with a range of innovative leveraged financial
products, principally in the foreign exchange and global equity
markets. The offer valued IFX at approximately GBP57.9 million.
City Index was established in 1983 and its ultimate parent company
is IPGL, a private holding company. IPGL's other interests include an
indirect shareholding of approximately 20 per cent. in ICAP plc, the
FTSE 100 listed interdealer broker with a market capitalisation of
approximately GBP4.3 billion, of which Michael Spencer is a director
and Chief Executive Officer.
http://www.cityindex.com
About FX Solutions LLC
FX Solutions is a leading US-based online foreign exchange broker
serving both retail and institutional customers. The Company provides
IB's and White Label Partners FX trading and risk management in over
100 countries through its Global Trading Systems (GTS) platform.
Regulated by the CFTC and NFA, FX Solutions' custom-engineered suite
of applications includes one-click trading, automated execution of
orders, a proprietary price feed and competitive fixed-spread pricing
- resulting in consistently low executable spreads. FX Solutions has
websites and complete customer support in four languages.
FX Solutions' Global Trading System platform, known as GTS, was
built to be scalable and flexible, serving the needs of retail
clients and institutional partners. The GTS platform provides for
over 99% automated execution of all orders as well as a suite of
professional trading features and tools. Recently, FX Solutions
announced the launch of two new products: GTS Web, a web-based
platform and FX AccuCharts 7.0, a charting package that has over 150
indicators and allows for trading from the charts. Later this year,
the Company plans to launch GTS Mobile, a mobile trading platform.
http://www.fxsolutions.com
About Francisco Partners ('FP')
Francisco Partners is a leading global private equity firm focused
exclusively on investments in technology and technology-enabled
businesses. With approximately US$5.0 billion of committed capital,
Francisco Partners is one of the world's largest technology-focused
private equity funds. The firm was founded to pursue structured
investments in technology companies undergoing strategic,
technological and operational inflexion points. Francisco Partners
targets majority and minority investments in private companies,
public companies and divisions of public companies, with transaction
values ranging from US$30 million to US$2.0 billion.
http://www.franciscopartners.com

Contact:

Further information: City Index, Alison Cashmore, Corporate
Communications, +44-207-107-7275, +44-7740-068-580,
Alison.Cashmore@cityindex.co.uk. U.S. Contact for FX Solutions, Josh
Inglis, Strategics, +1-312-346-2007, +1-312-504-7677,
jinglis@strategicsinc.com