SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Financial trading operator Plus500, the company which is currently a £460 million takeover target of leading igaming technology provider Playtech has proceeded to reactivate customer accounts.
Plus500 sees itself at the centre of an anti-money laundering investigation by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The regulator has halted Plus500’s abilities to trade and service transactions, which has seen the company’s share price freefall since May.
Following a review of its suspension, Plus500 has been able to reactivate up to 8500 customer accounts, whilst meeting conditions of its UK FCA investigation. UK business sources have speculated that some 40,000 UK accounts remain locked.
Issuing a corporate statement Plus500 confirmed that it had reactivate more than 20% of its +100,000 active client base. Clients that were approved to trade on the Plus500 platform were required to complete a ‘remedial AML procedure’.
Plus500 further detailed that 5200 customers had begun trading again , and that only 450 had withdrawn their funds from the platform.
The trading operator remains a takeover target of Playtech, with Plus500 governance agreeing to a 400p per share deal.
However on Monday Odey Asset Managemetn had slammed the offer made by Playtech, labelling the bid as “opportunistic”, since it exploits Plus500’s current UK trading difficulties. Odey AM further noted that Playtech 400p a share value, was well below the 750p level at which Plus500 traded at mid-May.
