BBVA and Newedge have formed a joint venture to combine their positions in the Spanish markets while retaining the brand name Altura.

Under the joint venture agreement between the parent banks, which merges the Altura and Newedge Madrid offices, Newedge Group and BBVA will each have a 50 per cent ownership interest in the new company.

The partnership is substituting the partnership BBVA had with Calyon Financial, with whom it created the broker house Altura in 2000.

Altura is a futures and options brokerage company in Spain, providing institutional clients with execution and clearing services on major listed derivatives exchanges. The combined Spanish entity now has EUR1,200m in client assets on deposit, and clears approximately 80 million contracts in the listed markets per year.

Newedge offers a full range of clearing and execution services on multi-asset products to a diverse client base, including institutional, corporate and hedge fund clients.

Sverre Hasvold, chief executive of the new Altura joint venture, says: “The combination of the two companies reinforces our competitive positioning in a consolidating industry so that we can continue delivering value to our clients. Through the new joint venture, our customers in Spain and Portugal will have access to more than 85 exchanges worldwide, so wherever they need to conduct business they can be confident of local expertise.”

Ricardo Laiseca, head of BBVA global markets division, csays: “We are delighted to join forces with Newedge, together BBVA and Newedge will make very strong partners to ensure that we maintain our status as the number one player in Spain.”

BBVA is a global group that offers individual and corporate customers a complete range of financial and non-financial products and services. It first began its activities in Spain over 150 years ago.