Prop Firm FTMO Closes OANDA Acquisition Deal After Ten Months

Czech prop trading giant FTMO closed the acquisition of OANDA yesterday (Monday), about ten months after it agreed to purchase the retail broker from private equity firm CVC. The closure of the deal came after the prop firm obtained approval from five regulators.

An Ambitious Deal or a Bargain?

Although the financial terms of the deal remain unknown, FTMO secured a USD 250 million credit line from a syndicate of Czech banks led by UniCredit to fund its planned acquisition of OANDA.

FinanceMagnates.com earlier reported that CVC acquired OANDA in 2018 at a valuation of about $162.5 million.

The completion of the deal also pushed FTMO into the brokerage business.

The prop firm also set up a brokerage division last year by appointing Michael Kamerman as the CEO of the brokerage unit. However, it remains unknown whether it will seek further brokerage licences.

“We will continue to focus on our core business – a modern prop trading platform,” said Otakar Šuffner, co-founder and CEO of FTMO. “The long-term plan is to build a trading powerhouse, which will serve traders on all levels – modern prop trading and brokerage with the relevant tools.”

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OANDA is a well-known name in the retail trading space, especially in margin forex and contracts for difference (CFD) trading. Founded in 1996, it is either regulated or has a presence in major financial hubs, including New York, Toronto, London, Warsaw, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney.

FTMO highlighted that it will keep the OANDA group as a fully standalone business.

“This acquisition enables us to speed up our growth, and to offer more innovative, integrated and smarter trading experiences for our clients,” said Gavin Bambury, CEO of OANDA.

OANDA also launched its own prop trading brand months before FTMO agreed to the purchase deal. Until now, the brokerage has been operating the prop unit under the OANDA Prop Trader brand; however, the latest announcement did not mention anything about the future of this OANDA prop unit.

The Integration of Props and Brokers

FTMO is one of the early entrants in this fast-growing prop trading industry. Co-founded by Šuffner and Marek Vašíček, who is also the CTO of the prop firm, the business is equally held by them.

The dominance of the Czech firm also surfaced recently, as its parent company’s filing showed that it netted a profit of over $62 million on $329 million in revenue in 2024. In the previous year, the prop unit alone generated over $213 million in turnover.

The entry of FTMO into the brokerage space came when other CFD brokers were launching their own units. Hantec, Axi, IC Markets, ATFX and several others now have their own prop trading unit. ATFX’s Chief Strategy Officer, Drew Niv, recently said that the broker converted over 10 per cent of prop traders into brokerage customers.

Several other prop firms have also obtained offshore brokerage licences; however, these appear to be mainly a strategy to gain MetaTrader licences. Although very few prop firms are offering brokerage services with offshore licences, none can be compared to the scale of FTMO’s entry into the space.