Troubled Ukrainian Broker MMCIS Gets a European License through Merger with Mill Trade

It was discovered today that the troubled Ukrainian broker, MMCIS, will apparently have access to a European licence via its partner brand.

A company called Glistentree Holdings Limited has received a license from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) allowing it to offer financial services throughout the European Union via the MIFID passporting agreement.

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On its website, Glistentree Holdings Limited presents itself as Mill Trade and the registration it displays is a corporate registration for Mill Trade Limited in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the exact same certificate displayed on Mill Trade’s website. The two companies also share one common physical address.

Mill Trade was absorbed by MMCIS last month following tough times that befell the two Ukrainian brokers brokers. As Roman Komica, MMCIS CEO, put it at the time: “We have merged with Mill Trade after a difficult process and a difficult history of interrelations between us. Initially, Mill Trade was setup by former MMCIS managers that broke away to setup their own firm. Our relations in the initial stages were strained and we got as far as considering legal proceedings. However, Mill Trade came to us for help as it was facing the same problems we were. This was because the people responsible for the cyber-attack on MMCIS were also targeting Mill Trade believing us to be affiliated.”

Mr. Komica added: “Mill Trade could not cope by itself and thus agreed to a merger with MMCIS in exchange for our help in restoring their liquidity. We didn’t see a difference between rescuing one company or two. In the foreseeable future, business processes and operations between the two companies will be synchronised and key departments unified. MMCIS and Mill Trade will operate under a single brand name with Finance, Risk and Client Support functions all operating from under one roof. The merger will help free-up additional resources required to optimise our activities in this crisis period.”

It now remains to be seen if Mr. Komica is able to save the troubled company with its existing brand or if he plans to switch to a new brand and relaunch as a European broker.