Plus500 Share Discussion Threads

[blueclyde] 10/7/2023 18:55

A very slimy company this one. Look back at the RNS from this time last year. EBITA was $305 million, and they gave the corresponding figure for the previous year to compare it against. This year they are at $175 million but they do not compare it against the corresponding $305 million from last year using H2 instead. Very poor corporate governance and obviously think people are thick.

[planelondon] 10/7/2023 11:21

Has anyone calculated an estimate half year EPS based on the information provided in this morning’s trading update?

[coxsmn] 10/7/2023 09:50

£1210 mkt cap with growing cash pile of £663M. 1210-663 values business at net 546MNb Abrdn paid 2bn for Interactive Investor trading platform

[aleman] 10/7/2023 08:57

I need to tweak the previous comment and it's a bit better than I thought:

Cash has only fallen from $930m to $850m in 6 months after buying back around $214m of shares and the February ex-dividend of $30m. Market cap is £1210m.

So cash is only down about $80m after shelling out $244m. It would have been up $160m+ in only 6 months without the buy-backs and dividend. The market cap has now risen slightly from £1210m at the open - understandably when you look at the cash numbers.

[arja] 10/7/2023 08:08

but they said prospects not good in year ahead I THINK !

[squeakeasy] 10/7/2023 07:56

Anyone seen the LIBERUM research note on Plus issued today?

[base7] 10/7/2023 06:46

Trading update positive + traction being gained in US.Japan progressing well & UAEnow trading following licence award +continuing to look at other acquisition prospects.

[aleman] 10/7/2023 06:45

Trading seems to be going well. So what are the cash numbers? Cash has only fallen from $930m to $850m in 6 months after buying back around $220m of shares? Market cap is £1210m.

[black bird] 14/6/2023 16:06

ODEY sell to plus 7.3m £ 101m equates to 13.83 pence do the rest of us follow, odey strapped for cash?
follow the money. another firm C M C most say avoid or sell. is plus to follow same business. BB

[planelondon] 13/6/2023 11:35

When I woke this morning to the news of the 8.2% opportunistic buyback at 1383p per share, the Italian expression once quoted by a renowned hedge fund scoundrel to describe the killing he had just made, immediately came to mind ….. Al mattino ha l'oro in bocca…

[planelondon] 13/6/2023 11:19

rHatton, the company’s guidance has been $500m of new revenues over five years. Fifty percent of this coming from organic growth and fifty percent from the US. More recently, David Zruia was quoting in an interview as saying $250m US revenues within three to five years. When questioned about the margin level on the new revenue the CFO declined to give a figure.

It would seem the buyback has wide support from a great number of shareholders. At the last AGM 97.91% of shareholders voted in favour to buyback own shares.

[coxsmn] 13/6/2023 11:18

Wouldn't take much for share price to double.

[coxsmn] 13/6/2023 11:12

Latest buyback ups our eps and shareholder returns by over 8% so all good. Only a dent to our huge cash pile.

[oi_oi_savaloy] 13/6/2023 11:08

Possibly............but I'm not a major shareholder....... :)

[arja] 13/6/2023 11:07

looking at the chart , could go back to 1400 level or to about 1560 in next month or so !

[rhatton] 13/6/2023 10:49

Wasn’t one of the reasons they opted for increased buybacks vs divi was major shareholder preferring that?

[oi_oi_savaloy] 13/6/2023 10:48

I'd be happy for them to stop the buybacks at 80m shares and then start going back to paying us a proper divi/special divis tbh (imho). Just pay us the money (that the 10m in sharebuybacks it would take to get down to 70m in shares) as a divi.....that might excite the market. Might be wrong of course.

[rhatton] 13/6/2023 10:42

It’s now 82 million after the odey purchase

[arja] 13/6/2023 10:39

rhatton,
I did not realise that the issued share capital is only about 96 million shares !

[rhatton] 13/6/2023 10:30

Planelondon, it’s been awhile since I’ve had a position here, what revenue are they targeting from the US portion?

[planelondon] 13/6/2023 10:20

The key for me is that this special opportunistic buyback doesn’t replace the rate or value of future buybacks but is in addition to buybacks that would have otherwise continued to take place. Excluding this special buyback the buyback run rate over the last 12 months has been $15 million per month and I would like to see this rate continue for at least another 18 months until the end of 2024. This would leave c. 70 million shares in issue at a time when growth from the US operation would begin hitting the bottom line as net profit. The double impact of a falling share count and rising net profits lead to very powerful dynamics for Earnings Per Share.

[base7] 13/6/2023 09:54

No brainer if you have $1bill in the bank & a major holder is a forced seller.For most companies that overhang could have taken years to clear-unless they could find another II to take the stock-but if they bought at a similar discount they could have unloaded for a quick profit-ie the problem would not have been solved.Lets hope our trading performance is holding up ( see CMCx RNS today )& we continue making headway in the US & Japan

[planelondon] 13/6/2023 09:36

Chucko1, the last major holdings RNS on 7 June Odey AM held 8,568,176 physical shares. I would think Plus500 was limited to buying up to 7,327,605 shares and no more because of the AGM resolution where the shareholders authorise the Company to make purchases of up to 9,173,106 ordinary shares. Since the AGM on 2nd May, the company has purchased c. 8,476,000 shares.

I would expect an EGM to be called shortly to increase this limit in the current year in order for the current buyback ($18m remaining = c. 1 million shares) and any further future buybacks can continue.

On a different note, when a fund is gated, it does not restrict the fund manager from continuing to sell the fund assets in an orderly manner.

[coxsmn] 13/6/2023 09:17

Valuation is ludicrous here that is why i continue to buy

[rhatton] 13/6/2023 09:11

Odey wanted a buyer and plus500 bought them. Simple as I would have thought.

“ Plus500, a global multi-asset fintech group operating proprietary technology-based trading platforms, announces that it has purchased 7,327,605 ordinary shares of ILS 0.01 each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") from Odey Asset Management LLP (the "Purchase"), representing approximately 8.2% of the Company's issued share capital (excluding shares already held in treasury), at a price of 1,383 pence per Ordinary Share, for a total consideration of approximately GBP101.3 million. The acquired shares will be held in treasury.”