| Known Owners: | Internet Invest Holding A/S; General Atlantic; Espirito Santo Financial Group; the former owners of Synthesis Bank |
| Ownership Remarks: | Sep 09 Update. Saxo Bank is a well known European bank that had its origins in 1992 in Denmark as options brokerage Midas Fond. These beginnings were not without controversy - see Wikipedia article. In 2001, founders (Lars Seier Christensen, Kim Fournais and Marc Hauschildt) were granted a Danish banking license, although Saxo to this date is not involved in any significant traditional banking activity and client funds are kept at other institutions. With the advent of internet trading, and particularly FX retail, Saxo Bank began a dedicated effort to turn the firm into an electronic trading powerhouse. An estimated 40% of Saxo Bank's employee base serves in an IT/development capacity, something that led to the internal development of SaxoTrader and SaxoWeb Trader platforms. To give access to mini-account holders, Saxo opted to outsource the development of Saxo Mini Trader to Russian software firm Reksoft. Saxo charted a unique path to its current presence today by "swimming upstream" from a retail FX client base to an institutional, multi-asset client base. Saxo has arguably the largest selection of investment products available: Forex, FX options, CFDs, stocks, ETF, online funds, and bonds. A reported 50% of the revenue the firm earns comes from third party institutional clients to whom Saxo provides access to its trading technology (white-label clients). Saxo Bank has received award recognition by prestigious institutional publications for its technology, although its retail reputation is not flattering at the moment. In broker satisfaction, Saxo ranked as the third lowest of 17 brokers with a substantial presence in Asia, and 9th out of 13 firms in Europe. Asia represents roughly 40% of its direct client base and Europe another 30%. In Nov 07, Citibank (through its retail FX venture CitiFX Pro) became the most significant white label partner for Saxo. A few months later, Portuguese Espirito Santo took a 5% stake in Saxo Bank, valuing the firm at EUR 1.25bn. Private equity firm General Atlantic owns 25%, employees own 5% and Fournais and Christensen own the rest. In Aug 08, Saxo Bank founders left the CEO seat to Eric Rylberg, who promptly proceeded to cut 310 jobs to approximately 915 positions worldwide. Since the cuts, the firm has increased its number of international sales offices to 14 from 8 the previous year. |