BBVA and Newedge have formed a futures and options brokerage joint venture in Spain, merging the Altura and Newedge Madrid offices. Newedge Group and BBVA will each have a 50% ownership interest in the new company.
This partnership is substituting the partnership BBVA had with Calyon Financial, with whom it created the broker house Altura in 2000. Newedge is a joint venture combining the brokerage firms of Calyon Financial and Fimat.
The new joint venture now has EUR1,200 million in client assets on deposit, and clears approximately 80 million contracts in the listed markets per year.
Sverre Hasvold, CEO of the new Altura joint venture, commented: The combination of the two companies reinforces our competitive positioning in a consolidating industry so that we can continue delivering value to our clients. Through the new joint venture, our customers in Spain and Portugal will have access to more than 85 exchanges worldwide, so wherever they need to conduct business they can be confident of local expertise.
Ricardo Laiseca, Head of BBVA Global Markets division, commented: We are delighted to join forces with Newedge, together BBVA and Newedge will make very strong partners to ensure that we maintain our status as the No. 1 player in Spain.
Patrice Blanc, CEO of Newedge, commented: Newedges presence in Spain marks a big step forward thanks to the well established Altura brand. This creates an excellent opportunity for us to deliver our global offer to a large number of institutional clients in Spain and Portugal while further increasing our global coverage.