Plus500 Launches $50M Share Buyback Program alongside an Existing One

London-listed Plus500 (LON: PLUS) has kicked off another share repurchase program on Wednesday, allocating $50 million. The forex and CFDs broker is already buying back its shares under another $55 million program.

The broker specified that both of its buyback programs will run side-by-side. It launched its previous $55 million buyback program on February 15, 2022. It included a special buyback program of $29.8 million to benefit from the Israeli tax rate changes and is expected to run throughout 2022.

The latest share buyback program has been launched only a day after the Israeli broker published its quarterly financials for the first three months of 2022. It reported a revenue of $270.9 million for the period, which was 68 percent higher than the previous quarter and 33 percent more than the first quarter of the previous year.

“The purpose of the New Share Buyback Programme is to further highlight the Board's continued confidence in the future prospects of Plus500 and reflects its strong financial position,” Plus500 stated in the official notice.

“This confidence is supported by the significant operational and financial momentum achieved by Plus500 over recent years, as the Group continues to make further progress on its strategic roadmap.”

Indeed, the broker had a cash balance of $886.6 million by the end of March 2022 and is now utilizing that liquidity to reduce its share capital.

Aggressive on Share Buybacks

Plus500 has been running share buyback campaigns for years now. It repurchased $88.8 million worth of its ordinary shares from the open market in 2020 and ran another $25 million program in the following year, later topping it up with an additional $12.5 million.

“All ordinary shares repurchased by the Company under the New Share Buyback Programme shall be classified as shares held in treasury (dormant shares). Such treasury shares are not entitled to dividends and have no voting rights at the Company's general meetings,” the broker clarified.