Shortly after Pepperstone collaborated with Berkshire Capital, it was reported that the New York-based consulting agency was advising Pepperstone on several structural options for the corporation. One of them is the initial public offering (IPO) , with the aim of selling the shares of the Australian-based Forex broker having the opportunity to expand.


In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on the MoneyBeat blog, Pepperstone Chief Executive Owen Kerr mentioned that the brokerage is currently considering listings on the Australian Securities Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and even the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Kerr revealed that he was skeptical about the demand for shares in a company with a business profile like Pepperstone. But he points to some positive examples set by OZForex, Pepperstone's smaller Land Down Under rival, which went public on the ASX this month and since then its share price has jumped 34.5%. As for Hong Kong exchange, Kerr observes a positive example coming from KVB Kunlun Financial Group.

The news of Pepperstone's collaboration with Berkshire comes after Kerr dropped the first hint at the possibility that he might be selling the business. He had said that his company had received and rejected several offers to work together. Pepperstone has discussed the various possibilities that, apart from definite benefits for the business owner, Pepperstone is able to obtain capital to fund expansion and launch new products, as well as acquire the necessary infrastructure to support growing trading volumes.

On the other hand, there is no point in throwing away businesses that are not in trouble.

An IPO is an entirely different strategy from a whole sale. Broadly speaking, an IPO is an affirmation of the existence and leading status of a broker.