Amsterdam flash trading firm hopes for €500 million IPO

The Amsterdam flash trader Flow Traders hopes to make about half a billion euros with an IPO on Friday. The company is placing 40 percent of its shares on the market - not because the company needs the capital, but because investment company Summit wants to cash in its 30 percent of the shares, Volkskrant reports. Flow Traders is one of the three major Dutch specialists in high-frequency trading, or flash trading - computer controlled automated buying and selling of shares, bonds or options. Flow Traders is likely to be worth between 1.3 and 1.7 billion euros at the end of the day, depending on investor interest. Summit will especially profit from the IPO, but so would the two founders of the company, Jan van Kuijk and Roger Hodenhuis. The two started Flow Traders in 2004 and both own more than 20 percent of the shares. This means that they may each be 300 million euros richer at the close of the stock market. Flash trading is a rather controversial way to play the stock markets, with traditional investors and traders complaining that it provides an unfair advantage in transactions.