According to German business daily Handelsblatt, Europe's second largest online broker, ConSors Discount Broker AG, is finding harder to break into the UK market than originally anticipated and has in fact now delayed its entry. The firm had planned to buy up a rival and start operations in the UK by the end of 2000, but has now decided to put back the start date.
ConSors, which is based in Nuremberg, has more than 500,000 existing customers, and was the first of Germany's online brokers to expand abroad. It owns a French and Spanish broker, and also has a business in Switzerland. Rivals Direkt Anlage Bank AG and Comdirect Bank AG, Europe's largest online broker, already have UK units. ConsSors says it is still in talks to make a UK acquisition, and a transaction may take place in the first quarter of 2001.
ConSors initially led the field but, faced with mounting competition from cheaper, bigger and more experienced rivals such as Charles Schwab, has found the going increasingly tough. Listed on Germany's Neuer Markt, its shares have lost two thirds of their value since peaking in March 2000. Investors take a dim view of the broker's expansion in the investment banking arena and have yet to see evidence that the building of an electronic trading network will pay off.
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