Plus500 moves into US with $30m acquisition of futures platform
After a strong year Plus500 is dipping its toe in the US market with a $30m deal to buy a futures trading platform.
The online trading platform this morning announced it has bought the membership interests of Cunningham Commodities, a regulated Futures Commission Merchant, and trading platform Cunningham Trading.
The deal represents a growth opportunity for Plus500 to move into a new market after a volatile year.
Plus500 has performed well during the pandemic after seeing a surge in users during the pandemic and the Gamestop saga. The platform reported “unprecedented” levels of usage with 82m customer trades last year, up from 35m in 2019.
However its latest quarterly results revealed the benefits of this volatility had started to fade, with revenue down 36 per cent to $203.2m.
“We are delighted to announce Plus500’s first acquisition and first entry into the US market,” chief executive David Zruia. “With a combination of Plus500’s best-in-class technology and Cunningham’s and CTS’ existing infrastructure, we expect to develop and scale the business in the growing US market and deliver long term shareholder value.”
There has been a real focus on catering for retail investors on futures exchanges in recent years. Since 2017 there has been an 84 per cent jump in retail trading on the US futures and options on futures market and it is estimated to be worth $2bn globally.
“”The acquisition represents an important strategic step for Plus500 as we continue to transition into a global, multi-asset fintech group. Our long-term ambition is to enable simplified, universal access to financial markets, and I’m excited that we have taken a further step toward achieving this today,” Zruia added.