In an announcement dated June 3, 2015, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) notified of a purchase of 3,661,026 ordinary shares in Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS), thus taking its stake in the CFD broker to 8.49%.
The latest transaction comes just a couple of days after the investment bank reported another purchase of shares in Plus500, taking its stake above 5%.
The 8.49% of voting rights are distributed across JPM’s subsidiaries in the following manner:
- JP Morgan Asset Management Holdings (UK) Limited – 3.39%;
- J.P. Morgan Securities plc – 5.10%.
JPMorgan’s actions highlight the increased interest of investors into Plus500, whose shares have been trading low after the broker had to implement stringent regulatory requirements regarding anti-money laundering procedures, which, in turn, has led to a backlog of client requests and account freezing.
Another company steadily building its stake in Plus500 is Odey Asset Management. It is now the biggest individual shareholder in the broker with a stake exceeding 25%.
Earlier today Odey voiced a negative stance on the proposed cash bid of 400p per Plus500 share from Playtech PLC (LON:PTEC), calling the offer opportunistic and undervaluing the broker. While Odey is looking for more, it could be that JPM is looking for more too.
Shares in Plus500 are trading around 370p per share at the moment of publication of this article.
Chart credit: Google Finance.
To view the filing about the latest purchase of Plus500 shares by JPM, click here.