Member Info for planelondon

Just for clarity: US segregated funds sit off balance sheet and are ring fenced. Hence, the term ‘Segregated’. The same applies to Retail OTC funds elsewhere in the world which are also segregated . The only client funds that sit within the company’s balance sheet are Professional customer funds which are minimal and stood at USD 25.3m as at 31.12.2024.

The Annual Report published on 2 April notes the London office of US law firm Latham & Watkins LLP as a new legal advisor. This would indicate to me that a US dual listing is well progressed and likely imminent. My guess would be sometime around September.

There is also the likely IPO in London or New York of e-toro later this year. They have indicated they are seeking a valuation above $3.5bn (twice Plus500’s current valuation). In some ways e-toro (Israeli FinTech established 2007) have a very similar profile to Plus500 but without the 10 years+ track record of significant shareholder distributions of $2.1bn. If they get that IPO away at $3.5bn+, Plus500’s current valuation at $1.8bn looks extremely low.

MrBB

James Hanbury will take his full investment team from Odey Asset Management subsidiary Brook Asset Management to Lancaster Investment Management, which has signed a binding agreement over the team and funds transfer.

www.investmentweek.co.uk/news/4121216/james-hanbury-investment-team-odey-subsidiary-brook-lancaster-im

Yes CMC are likely to have various corporate insurance policies (professional indemnity, directors and officers etc.) but these are likely to have maximum cover limits and are unlikely to pay out for mis-selling and/or breaches of financial regulations and consumer laws.

The class action in Australia covering nearly 10 years of client loses could be expensive to defend and have a material impact on net earnings in the meantime. The sums at risk on an unfavourable outcome could be enormous.

www.cmcmarketsclassaction.com.au/

It’s an uncomfortable position.

Take private, for all parties, looking more attractive by the day.

In short, because its seven year stock market listing has been a disaster and there are few viable options available other than for the business to be taken private by Lord Cruddas either on his own or with private equity partners.

Yes of course Lord Cruddas would have to offer a premium to current prices. He could afford to be generous and offer 140p a share (a 30% premium today’s prices) which is well below the 240p he sold his shares seven years ago at IPO.

This is going sub 100p and investors would bite his arm off for the opportunity to sell out of what is pretty much an illiquid stock at 140p.

I note from your post in June you were buying these at 162p.

Enlighten me then and explain how it would work in your view?

I think you miss understand what is meant by take private. It will be Lord Cruddas who will buying the outstanding 35% at low prices and taking the business back into (his) private ownership.

Lord Cruddas is going to have to take this private and I doubt investors will like the price.

Thank you Beauchamp, what share count did you use? My calculation is coming out at 165c on a 82.3m share count. Although, I think technically the average share count over the period is the correct number to use.

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

Shareholders not happy about the remuneration report and allotment of treasury shares to the Executive. Rightly so in my view. Executive remuneration should be paid from the P&L before tax and not coming out of shareholder returns post tax. Especially, given the size of these share bonuses which was equivalent to 0.50% of the market cap in the last round of share payouts in January. This needs to stop.

I think the cash position is pretty clear. There’s approximately $1.375 billion of cash available for interest income activities. Not all of this will be in USD, perhaps 80% and not all of it will be on deposit at the full base rate.

A working figure of 3% returning $35-45 million of interest rate income during 2023 is probably a reasonable assumption.

@ Beauchamp, my understanding is the $3.2 billion quoted in the prelims statement is accumulated deposits throughout the course of 2022. It’s not net deposits. It’s flow. Net deposits is the number that is relevant to interest rate income. The figure of $3.2 billion is a bit of red herring when it comes to the opportunity for interest rate income.

OTC customer net deposits are stated in the Preliminary Results as $282.2m as at 31 December 2023 (Note 7). US segregated customer deposits were $152.9m. Own cash $930.2m. Therefore, by my understanding the total cash available for interest rate income activities is $1,372 billion.

@ Beauchamp. How do you arrive at $3 billion of cash deposits?

As at 31 December 2022, I get to a figure of $1.372 billion as follows:

Own funds: $930.2m
OTC segregated client funds: $282.2m
US segregated funds: $159.2m

June Felix’s leadership has destroyed the multiple on this company. A multiple that used to be 12x prior to her is now 8x.

2023 consensus earnings updated this morning on investor relations web page to EPS $2.42Add in $40m of interest earnings (which sit outside and is in addition to EBIT). 12% tax rate. 88m shares in issue at year end and you get EPS of $3.16 (£2.64 at current exchange rate).

@tom79, it looks like the pace of the buy backs has indeed picked up. If the rate of the last few days is the new rate, this equates to c. $12m a month and would be a six month buy back completing at around the time of the interim results in mid August.