FTX units on auction block draw 117 interested buyers: Court filing

As many as 117 parties have expressed interest in buying up one or more of FTX’s independently operated subsidiaries including FTX Japan, FTX Europe, LedgerX and Embed, according to a court filing.

The court filing was made on Jan. 8 by Kevin Cofsky, a partner at Perella Weinberg, the investment bank representing FTX US and affiliated firms. Cofsky stated:

“Approximately 117 parties, including various financial and strategic counterparties globally, have expressed interest to the Debtors in a potential purchase of one or more of the Businesses.”

He added that the debtors have entered into 59 confidentiality agreements with potential counterparties who have expressed interest in any one or more of the companies.

While no firm agreements have been made, those parties can now access information to facilitate due diligence, such as details regarding the business unit’s operations, finances and technology.

The businesses up for sale are Embed, LedgerX, FTX Japanand FTX Europe, according to lawyers representing FTX debtors.

Around 50 parties were interested in Embed, 56 were looking at LedgerX, 41 expressed interest in FTX Japan and 40 were for FTX Europe, according to the filing.

Embed is a clearing firm that FTX acquired in June to enhance its stock and equities offerings. LedgerX is Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated digital currency futures and options exchange and clearinghouse acquired by FTX in August 2021.

FTX Japan and FTX Europe are independent subsidiaries of FTX global but were subject to license and business suspensions in December.

Related: FTX spent $40M on food, flights, and hotels in just 9 months: Court filings

In December, FTX sought permission from a U.S. bankruptcy court to sell off the firm’s Japanese and European branches, in addition to the two clearing companies.

The deadline for submitting initial bids for the four firms is set to expire between Jan. 18 and Feb. 1.