Interactive Brokers Group files $500 million IPO
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Interactive Brokers Group, a profitable trading firm founded by Hungarian-born entrepreneur Thomas Peterffy, filed Monday to raise up to $500 million from its initial public offering.
As a player in the electronic-markets arena, Interactive Broker Group could tap into some of the investor interest that sent shares of the New York Mercantile Exchange soaring 130% in its debut earlier this month.
The 500-employee company plans to go public through an Internet auction under the OpenIPO system handled by underwriter W.R. Hambrecht. E-Trade Financial is also a lead banker on the deal.
Interactive Brokers Group bills itself as "the professional's gateway to the world's markets," and offers an automated global electronic brokerage platform that specializes in routing orders and trades in securities, futures and foreign-exchange instruments.
The Greenwich, Conn., company reported income before income tax and minority interest of $578.3 million, on revenue of $1.3 billion, for the nine months ended Sept. 30, compared with $407 million income before income tax and minority interest and $772 million in revenue, a year earlier.
Interactive Brokers Group plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol IBKR.
Peterffy, age 62, is the company's founder, chairman and chief executive. Peterffy, who took part in the auction for bankrupt derivatives trading firm Refco in 2005, has been a long-time proponent of electronic trading.
The IPO filing comes as Interactive Brokers Group teams up with LaBranche & Co., Susquehanna International Group LLP, and VDM Specialists LLC, a unit of Van der Moolen, to launch a new stock exchange next year with the Chicago Board Options Exchange.
The CBOE Stock Exchange LLC, or CBSX, will feature a hybrid market model that will combine elements of on-screen and floor-based trading. CBOE said it plans to launch CBSX in early 2007. |
