The financial services firm ADS Securities has partnered with a company run by the Air Asia founder Tony Fernandes in a deal that will attract foreign currency flows from Asia to its Abu Dhabi trading platform.
Malaysia's Tune Group - its portfolio includes the low-cost carrier Air Asia, the financial services firm Tune Money, Tune Insurance and the mobile company Tune Talk - will leverage on its customer reach across Asia through the set- up of a new company that will operate as an "introducing broker" for ADS's services, primarily foreign currency trading.
Tune FX, subject to regulatory and legal approvals, should be up and running by September this year, ADS said yesterday.
"The objective will be to use Tune FX's marketing reach to introduce prospective customers to the forex trading services platform powered and licensed by ADS Securities," the two companies said in a joint statement.
ADS Securities, regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE, was launched three years ago as a trading platform in foreign exchange, bullion and commodities instruments and has since added fixed income interest trading capability.
The fast-growing firm has been attracting a high-quality team of traders and advisers, many lured away from the troubled European financial services sector.
Key executives at ADS include Swiss-born Matteo Legler, who joined after stints in asset management in Switzerland, and Claus Nouveau-Nikolajsen, a Dane who advised high net-worth individuals and family offices at Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch.
The firm was founded by Mahmood Ebrahim Al Mahmood, regarded as one of the rising stars of Abu Dhabi's indigenous investment scene. He began his career at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority as a trader but went on to develop algorithmic trading techniques.
He has served as a director of the Securities and Commodities Authority and is currently on the board of Mubadala Development, the Abu Dhabi government-owned investment vehicle.
"It's a great marriage of two successful entrepreneurs and two entrepreneurial companies," an ADS spokesman said, referring to Mr Al Mahmood and Mr Fernandes, the founder of Tune Group.
