Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS) has today reported that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has made a further reduction in its shareholding in the company, with its ownership now standing at 4.66%.
JPMorgan Chase & Co’s interest in highly efficient CFD broker Plus500 has varied tremendously since the company’s very successful entry into London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market last year. At one stage during the summer of 2014, JP Morgan Chase & Co’s interest stood at over 14%.
The North American multinational investment bank has since made a number of transactions, most recently, in December, JP Morgan Chase & Co made a purchase of 3,242,889 shares, representing a 7.8% interest, taking the total number of shares held by JP Morgan to 8,981,221 at that time.
An important consideration regading that particular transaction is that it could have comprised likely a combination of JP Morgan buying Plus500 shares for its own account, a perfectly bona fide practice, as well as for JP Morgan clients who prefer to hold their shares of certain publicly traded companies such as Plus500 in the form of CFDs, for tax purposes. Under a circumstance such as this, JP Morgan would purchase the shares, and subsequently issue corresponding CFDs to those clients.
Since then, JP Morgan Chase sold 3,024,198 shares in Plus500 on February 19, 2015, leaving the investment bank with 5,957,023 shares in Plus500, which is equal to a stake of 5.19%.
Following yesterday’s transaction, JP Morgan Chase & Co has 5,356,810 shares in Plus 500.
To view the official announcement, click here.