Before its purchase of Refco assets had even been fully finalised, Man Group last week brokered a management buyout of Refco's London businesses to be backed by New York-based asset management firm Marathon and headed up by former Refco Europe MD Mark Slade.
According to a statement released by Marathon, the Refco assets to be purchased comprised its London futures, FX and financial brokerage operations including sales, trading, administrative, IT and exchange clearing businesses. Also included was Refco's large share of repo business cleared on LCH Clearnet.
It remained unclear at press time whether or not the deal was to include subsidiaries, Refco Trading Services (Refco TS) or EasyScreen, acquired by the firm in March 2003 and March 2005 respectively (see FO Week Vol 8 No 10 and and Vol 10 No 11).
The status of trading...