

Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Multi-asset brokerage E-Trade Financial Corp., operating under the E-Trade brand, said on Monday it has finalized the acquisition deal for Aperture New Holdings Inc., the indirect parent company of OptionsHouse. Initially, the deal was expected to be closed in the fourth quarter of the year.
The company entered in July into a definitive agreement to acquire Aperture New Holdings for $725 million in cash. With the move, E-Trade aims to expand its customer profile with the addition of OptionsHouse’s derivative-centric traders. It later announced its intentions to offer up to $400 million in preferred stock with a liquidation preference of $1,000 per share and to use the proceeds to partly finance the deal.
As part of the new ownership, the company’ management board has been shuffled and expanded with new executives, including staff from the acquiring company.
“With the OptionsHouse transaction drawn to a close, we have a significant opportunity to reconfigure the Company’s leadership to better focus on growing the business both organically and inorganically,” said Rodger Lawson, Executive Chairman of E-Trade Financial.
“With leadership firmly installed, on a parallel track, we will continue pursuing capital deployment initiatives through balance sheet growth, share repurchases, and additional acquisitions, should we find attractive opportunities that offer value to the business and compelling returns for our shareholders,” E-Trade Financial CEO Karl Roessner said.
New York-based E-Trade Financial Corp., offers various financial services, online brokerage and banking services. It works primarily with retail clients through its 30 offices across the US. The holding company has three subsidiaries – E-Trade Securities for securities products and services, including stocks, bonds mutual funds, options, and ETFs; E-Trade Capital Management for managed account solutions; and E-Trade Bank for bank products and services.
OptionsHouse is an indirect subsidiary of Aperture New Holdings and is based in Chicago. It has 154,000 customer accounts with $3.6 billion in customer assets, including $1.4 billion in cash. In the 12 months that ended June 30, 2016, OptionsHouse executed 27 000 Daily Average Trades (DARTs). Of them 63% were in options. Besides options, the full-suite investment products portfolio includes equities and futures.