Inflexion’s Global Reach Partners completes purchase of FC Exchange

Inflexion is pleased to announce that its portfolio company Global Reach Partners, a leading UK foreign exchange specialist, has completed the acquisition of established international money transfer and payment solutions provider, FC Exchange.

GRP, which provides payments and hedging services to businesses and private individuals, transacts annually over £3.5bn of foreign currency, through its team of over 100 expert traders and support staff based in London. The acquisition will increase these transactions annually to over £5.5bn and the combined team to 170 employees.

This acquisition of FCE allows GRP to build scale and add capabilities. GRP has shown solid growth in the last few years, with a strong, talented team providing expertise in the currency markets and world-class customer service. Today’s announcement gives GRP immediate scale, further reach, and added capabilities.

Mark Smith-Halvorsen, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of GRP said: “We are making this acquisition as we recognise the huge opportunity in the cross-border payments market. FCE’s business is a perfect complement to our own. We each excel in our respective segments – they have a predominantly private client base compared to our mainly corporate client revenue stream. The goal of this transaction is to combine forces to create a leading FX payments company.”

Nick Fullerton CEO of FCE commented: “We have experienced 57% year on year growth and I’m very excited about the future journey with GRP and Inflexion behind us. We will retain our high standards and values which the GRP team share. We will be stronger together.”

John Harper, Partner, Inflexion Private Equity added: “We’re delighted that GRP has completed its first acquisition. When Inflexion announced the management buyout of GRP in March, we stated our intention to back the existing management team to continue to grow market share and execute a buy-and-build consolidation strategy in the UK FX sector. This acquisition is that strategy in action.”