BlackRock Holds Below 5% Stake in Plus500 

BlackRock has diluted its stake in Plus500 and is currently holding less than 5% of the brokerage’s shares. This was according to the London Stock Exchange (LSE) filing on Monday.

The New York-based asset management company took a little over 7% stake in Plus500 in September 2018. It made the decision when the London-listed brokerage shares dropped at around 20% from its record high in August 2018.

However, even after the institutional interest, the broker’s shares continued fall.  This was prior to pivoting to a steady bull run since April 2019.

Since its dip in March, Plus500 has doubled its value. This came when the global equities market experienced a tremendous sell-off triggered by coronavirus uncertainties.

Its shares are now trading at around £15 apiece and BlackRock purchased the brokerage shares at almost the same price. As a result, the asset manager with over $6.8 trillion under management broke even. It hardly made any profit from this investment.

Last month, the Israel-based brokerage published its half-yearly financials for the first half of 2020. This included the market madness in March.

Its revenue for the period jumped 281%  year-on-year to $564.2 million. That also ticked its publicly-listed shares to go up.

 

Ongoing Buyback

Furthermore, Plus500 is actively buying back its own shares from the market. This is under the latest repurchasing scheme. It’s committed to pull $67 million in its own shares from the market by the end of February next year.

Plus500 is repurchasing its shares almost daily since the announcement of the buyback plan. It has already spent over £10 million in the process.

On Monday, the broker bought 25,648 of its own shares, the latest filing with the LSE revealed.  It spent around £399,459 in the process.

Meanwhile, Plus500 is planning to expand its operations by entering into physical equity trading. The broker is set to become a full-fledged stockbroker rather than an online contract for difference (CFD) provider.