Alpari fails to find buyers, 114 jobs go

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By Jemima Kelly and Steve Slater

LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The administrators for foreign exchange broker Alpari UK have been unable to sell the business after the company was crippled by losses caused by Switzerland's removal of its cap on the Swiss franc.

The joint (NasdaqCM: JYNT - news) administrators from KPMG said on Thursday they had sold the firm's intellectual property assets, including the Alpari trademark, to co-founder and main shareholder Andrey Dashin.

Dashin, a Russian accountant and banker who formed Alpari Russia in 1998 with four other partners, said in January that he had tried to wind up Alpari's parent company a year ago, fearing it was "doomed" long before the company's collapse from trading losses.

Dashin is also the founder of another Cyprus-based retail brokerage, forextime.com or FXTM, which has said that the franc's sudden surge had no "major impact" on its business.

Several competitors, including Toronto-based Oanda, Britain's ETX Capital and another Cyprus-based broker, IronFX, had been in the race to buy Alpari UK.

Richard Heis, joint special administrator of the company and partner at KPMG, said in a statement on Thursday that the administrators would continue to speak to buyers about sales of other parts of the company's business.

"We are delighted to have completed the disposal of the intellectual property assets, which will recover value for the company's creditors," he said.

But the administrators added that the lack of a buyer for all the company meant 114 staff had left due to redundancies and resignations. They continued to employ 52 people who will assist in the administration.

A spokeswoman for KPMG said the most valuable part left to sell is the client list. The company had 27,000 active clients, and 125,000 clients in total. (Editing by Sinead Cruise and Angus MacSwan)