ETX Capital, a London-based financial spread-betting and contracts-for-difference provider, has acquired Shelbourne Markets, Ireland’s largest financial spread-betting firm for an undisclosed sum.

Shelbourne, which has 10,000-11,000 clients in Ireland, has been on the market for some months with four parties involved in bidding.

Shelbourne clients will become ETX Capital clients and fall under British FCA regulation while continuing to be regulated by the Central Bank. ETX already has about 1,000 clients in Ireland.

ETX has been on the expansion trail since 2010 when it launched businesses in Germany and South Africa. Last year, it also began offering its services in Greece, Spain, Denmark, Italy and Romania.

Trading technology

Enrique Curran, the chief executive of Shelbourne, said: “We are delighted to be working with ETX Capital who will offer our clients cutting-edge trading technology, global trading experience and are committed to growing the Irish financial spread-betting market. ”

In March 2013, Mr Curran said Shelbourne had posted a profit of €1 million in the previous 12 months. The company declined to comment on its current financials, citing sale confidentiality agreements.

Andrew Edwards, chief executive of ETX, said: “Ireland has always been an important part of our expansion plans and we are excited to have found the right opportunity to gain a foothold in the Irish trading community.” The deal, Mr Edwards said, was subject to all necessary regulatory and other consents. ETX Capital is the trading name of Monecor (London) Limited, which was corporated in 1965.

Commercial evolution

Shelbourne was originally bought out of Worldspreads in a deal backed by clients and staff at Merrion Capital in 2009 and rebranded as Marketspreads. In April 2012, the Central Bank suspended Marketspread’s licence for three weeks, citing concerns over audit and capital adequacy. Its problem dated back to 2009.

The Central Bank restored the licence after it was satisfied all issues had been dealt with. The company then rebranded as Shelbourne Markets. Shelbourne employs 16 in Dublin 4 and is owned by the Curran family and management. Mr Curran’s father, the late Ray Curran was a former chairman of Merrion Capital and a key executive with the Jefferson Smurfit Group.