Dublin-based internet spread betting firm Global Trader 247 is understood to have formed a €630,000 joint venture with Canada’s biggest bond broker, Shorcan.
Global Trader was established almost three years ago by Trinity College graduate David Butler in South Africa with colleagues in the investment banking community. The company is profiting from an unprecedented rise in spread trading, where punters go online and invest in the performance of a share, a currency or a commodity without owning the shares themselves. The website has been growing 60pc quarter-on-quarter and the company, which employs 22 people, recently established its European hub in Dublin where it will employ 12 people initially.
Global Trader 247 is understood to be executing on average more than 20,000 transactions a month worth €187m.
The recent deal with Shorcan, which is understood to be the first deal of its kind in Canada, will see Shorcan invest €630,000 in the joint venture, which will operate as Shorcan Index.
The new company will specialise in the sale of contracts for difference (CFD) to the Canadian market for the first time, which allow punters to profit from the performance of a share even though the value of the share price is falling. The trader is engaging effectively in the performance of the share and not the share itself. There is no stamp duty, broker fee or administration fee.
According to reports, the new company expects to be profitable by the first quarter of 2004.
By John Kennedy
