Online trading platform Plus500 to hold AIM IPO

The company is seeking to raise $50 million at a company value of $225 million on London's Alternative Investment Market.

Online trading platform Plus500 Ltd. today announced that it plans to hold an IPO on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The company, which was founded in 2008, is seeking to raise up to $50 million at a company value of $225 million (after money). This will be an Israeli IPO of a size that the AIM has not seen in a long time.

UK investment bank Liberum Capital Ltd. is nominated advisor and broker for Plus500's offering. So far as is known, the offering will include an offer to sell by the company's founders, and the exact size is not yet known.

Plus500 was founded by CEO Gal Haber, a co-founder of backgammon site Play 65, managing director Alon Gonen and four others. The company operates an online trading platform for contracts for difference (CFDs) on shares, commodities, indices, foreign currency, and exchange traded funds (ETFs).

Plus500's financial data are extraordinary. According to its announcement, it posted a pretax profit of $23 million on $56 million revenue in 2012, and a pretax profit of $7 million on $19.8 million revenue for the first quarter of 2013. The company is incorporated in the UK, and its Israeli office is in Haifa.

So far as is known, the founders will own 75% of Plus500 after the IPO. It says, "All of the founders are actively involved in the group’s business, including board members."

Plus500's platform is available in 30 languages in 50 countries. The number of active members rose from 45,000 at the end of 2011 to 58,000 at the end of 2012.

"The company’s admission to the AIM and placing will support our growth ambitions," said Haber. "Britain is our largest market, generating a tenth of our income."

Plus500's new chairman is Alastair Gordon, the former CFO of translation software developer SDL, and former William Hill Online CEO Henry Birch is a director.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 1, 2013

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013

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