Plus500 H1 profits fall 43%, launches $60m share buyback

Contract-for-difference platform Plus500 on Monday reported a 43% in half-year profits as customer numbers fell amid weaker trading volumes and said it was handing back $120m to shareholders via dividends along with a share buyback.

Interim core profit rose came in at $174m compared with $305.3m a year earlier, although it was up 17% from the second half of last year when volatile markets drove trading volumes in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine as more amateur investors started investing.

Group revenue fell 28% to $368.5m and the company said it was starting a $60m share buyback.

Customer income, a key measure of the group's underlying performance, was up 2% to $304.3m. However, Plus500 lost more than 41,100 active customers, a fall of 19% year on year.

New customer numbers fell 12% to 50,449 compared to the first half of 2022, though they were up 2% from the end of 2022.

Plus500 said comparisons with the last six months of 2022 provided "a more meaningful comparator ... given the significantly heightened volatility" across financial markets seen at the start of 2022.

Plus500 said it expected full-year revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation would be in line with current market expectations.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com