JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has obviously reversed its stance on the attractiveness of shares in Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS), as the investment bank reported on June 1, 2015, that it held a 5.302% stake in the CFD broker.
According to the filing with the London Stock Exchange, as of Monday the bank held a total of 6,091,218 ordinary shares in Plus500, which means that it boosted its stake in the broker via the purchase of 837,139 shares.
Across JPM’s subsidiaries, the holding of 5.302% is distributed in the following manner:
- JP Morgan Asset Management Holdings (UK) Limited – 4.027%;
- J.P. Morgan Securities plc – 1.275%.
You perhaps recall that as of May 26, 2015, JPM had a stake of 4.57% in the broker, after selling 1,370,620 shares. It is interesting to see that JPM is now building its stake in the broker.
Given that the LSE filing does not indicate the time of the latest transaction, we cannot say whether it happened before or after the announcement of the acquisition agreement between Playtech PLC (LON:PTEC) and Plus500. We are curious to see whether JPM’s stance on Plus500 shares will change depending on the deal.
This morning has been challenging for Plus500 shares – soon after the London trading session started the share price went down – it fell by more than 8% for less than a half an hour. At the moment of publication of this article the share price has somewhat recovered and one share in the broker trades for 364p. That is way below the 400p per share Playtech is about to pay to Plus500 shareholders.
Photo credit: Google Finance.
To view the official filing with the LSE, click here.