Gobbling up another country site in its quest to trade on a global arena, E*TRADE Group Inc. Monday bought its own licensee for the Nordic region.
The company then turned around to launch two joint ventures for E*TRADE services in Norway and Denmark. The online brokerage will hold a majority interest in both new ventures through E*TRADE Nordic.
The purchase turns E*TRADE Nordic AB into a subsidiary of E*TRADE Group (EGRP), but the essential management structure of the company remains the same. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
E*TRADE Norge ASA will be created through the new alliance between E*TRADE Nordic and Delphi Forvaltning AS, a leading Norwegian independent asset manager and financial content provider.
The E*TRADE Denmark venture will be developed and launched in partnership with Difko Borsmaeglerselskab (DBS Online). The agreement includes an investment deal in which E*TRADE Nordic purchased a majority interest in DBS Online, the first online brokerage in Denmark.
E*TRADE sees the Internet-savvy region as a stronghold for its global brokerage empire. The online trading pioneer intends to establish its name in each of the top 20 finance markets in the world, and has inked a flurry of deals to insure the creation of a cross-border trading system.
The company is currently pinning its visions of a global trading market on its $122 million purchase of international financial services company TIR Holdings Ltd. in July. E*TRADE is also investing in E*OFFERING, a full-service online investment bank, and Archipelago, a leading Electronic Communications Network (ECN).
Last week, the company furthered its 20-market goal with a joint venture for a branded site in Germany which includes Berliner Effektenbank AG and New York Broker Germany AG.
Making its debut on the very day Japan deregulated its brokerage commissionrates, E*Trade Group this month also launched an E*Trade Japan online brokerage service. Sources say that an E*TRADE Korea is in the works, in alliance with Japanese Internet frontrunner Softbank and LG Investment Securities.
