Trading platform Plus500 (LON:PLUS) has expanded its portfolio with the strategic acquisition of a Brazilian broker-dealer. The deal accelerates the UK company’s push into the lucrative Latin American market.
A ‘dynamic retail trading market’
Plus500 has agreed to acquire Guru for an unspecified sum, giving it a direct local presence in Brazil. The deal will be financed from the group’s existing cash pile of $860 million.
As well as being Latin America’s largest economy, Brazil is ‘one of the world’s most dynamic retail trading markets’, the firm says. Guru’s local expertise will ‘accelerate growth and enable the delivery of new products and services to local customers’, it adds.
Latin American expansion
The group will look to build and broaden its local offering to include Brazilian stocks, futures, options and fixed income. ‘This is another clear step in our value creation strategy to deepen our offering and reach new markets’, commented CEO David Zruia.
The acquisition accelerates Plus500’s Latin American expansion, building on its B2B partnership with Nelogica and its local presence in Colombia. As well as increasing its local product base, the firm aims to offer customers access to US derivatives markets.
2026 has been a topsy-turvy year for Plus500 shares, despite its positive operating performance. After hitting a new high in July, the stock price tumbled days later on the H1 results.
Despite record customer revenue, investors homed in on a slowdown in growth from 18% in Q1 to 5% in Q2. The slowdown occurred despite a 2% increase in ARPU (average revenue per user), suggesting fewer active customers during the quarter.
Currently, the shares are down 35% from their highs and trade on a prospective PE of 11 times. Stripping out the $860 million of cash temporarily puts the underlying business on a PE of eight times.
That seems far too cheap for a company which has grown its earnings by over 20% per year for more than a decade. Part of that growth has come from buying other businesses with local licenses, market access and operational expertise and scaling them using its technology and products.
Plus 500 strikes us as just the kind of stock which should appeal to investors looking for growth away from the AI narrative. We look forward to the Q3 results which are due next week, although the firm has already said it performed strongly.
