Odey Asset Management keeps buying into Plus500, takes stake above 25%

The first day of June appears to have been rather hectic for trading in shares in Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS), the CFD broker which yesterday announced an agreement to sell all of its issued share capital to Playtech PLC (LON:PTEC) for GBP 459.6 million. In the meantime, interest in Plus500 from some investors appears to be resilient – Odey Asset Management keeps beefing up its stake in the broker.

After taking its holding in Plus500 to 21.33% on May 29, 2015, Odey has now increased its holding in the broker further. The transaction that took place on June 1, 2015, means that the wealth manager has control over 25.49% of the voting rights in Plus500.

Across Odey’s subsidiaries, the holding is allocated the following way:

  • CF Odey Absolute Return Fund – 19.31%;
  • Odey Allegra Developed Markets Fund – 4.52%;
  • All other funds – less than 3%.

If we look into the details, we notice that the change in the holding in fact reflects two transactions:

  • Selling of shares in Plus500 that reduced the number of voting rights held that way by 100,000.
  • Purchase of CFDs that hiked the number of voting rights held that way by 4,881,001.

Playtech has agreed to pay Plus500 shareholders 400p per share. This is more than the current market price of Plus500 shares – it hovers around 360p at the moment of this article publication.

To view the filing with the London Stock Exchange, click here.

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