Three Japanese commodities brokerages plan to merge their online trading businesses from October 1, Himawari Holdings Inc, one of the companies, said on Tuesday. Himawari CX Inc, a subsidiary of Himawari Holdings, Astmax Futures Co Ltd, a unit of Astmax Co and .Commodity Inc are the three companies involved.
Online shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc owns 42.5 percent of .Commodity. The merger comes at a time when Japanese commodities futures companies are consolidating as the industry struggles to boost turnover, which has fallen since a new law took effect two years ago. The move comes as online trading in commodities futures, such as oil and gold, is growing in Japan.
"It is important for us to take the lead in the online business," Yoshiaki Terada, Himawari Holding's operating officer, told Reuters by telephone. Terada said the three companies will determine their stakes by the end of this month. The firms will be merged into .Commodity, which they hope to eventually list on the stock exchange.
The three companies combined are the biggest online players in terms of total volume of margins held, which amounted to 10.3 billion yen ($87.37 million) as of September 2006, according to a news release.