London - FXCM Inc. said it agreed to buy a 50 percent controlling interest in Lucid Markets Trading Ltd. and Lucid Markets LLP for about $176 million.

"FXCM has been transforming its institutional foreign exchange business in the past year," said Drew Niv, its chief executive officer.

"Since the fourth quarter of last year we have been migrating customers to our own in-house institutional platform which we believe has made us more competitive in the institutional space and resulted in some significant increases in our institutional volume."

Niv said the Lucid acquisition was a natural extension of the firm's institutional business.

"They have demonstrated the ability to grow and deliver solid results across a range of market conditions," he said. "This transaction also adds the expertise and talents of one of the best firms in the FX world. We are most excited about the potential a Lucid/FXCM combination gives in serving our institutional clientele."

Lucid Markets, a non-bank electronic market making and trading firm, had revenues of $149 million last year and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $113 million. Lucid traded $13.4 trillion of foreign exchange in 2011.
FXCM said Lucid will not be a liquidity provider to FXCM's retail agency FX offering.