15 November 2021
CMC Markets Plc
Evaluation of Managed Separation of Leveraged and Non-leveraged Divisions
Following recent media speculation, the Board of CMC Markets Plc ("CMC" or the "Group"), a leading global provider of online trading and institutional ("B2B") platform technology solutions, confirms that it is in the very early stages of evaluating the merits of a managed separation of the leveraged and non-leveraged divisions of the Group ("the Review") in order to unlock shareholder value. The Review is consistent with the Board's continuous evaluation of strategic opportunities to maximise shareholder value.
On 10th June 2021 the Group announced with its full year 2021 results that as part of its strategy beyond leveraged trading (CFDs), it will be launching its new UK investment D2C and B2B platforms next year, offering investment products, physical shares, tax wrappers and third party funds.
Further to this, on 16th September 2021, the Group announced that the B2B white label deal with ANZ was ending and will be replaced by the acquisition of over 500,000 of ANZ's share investing clients with total assets in excess of £25 billion (AUD$ 45 billion), increasing combined Group client assets to approximately £40 billion, with approximately 1 million investing clients.
As a consequence of this acquisition, the growing size of investing clients and their assets, the launch of the new UK investment platform, and its growing B2B platform business, the Group boasts two strong underlying businesses, leveraged and non-leveraged. Both businesses have benefited from significant investment and each have strong growth prospects in sizeable markets with excellent competitive positions.
In this context, and in discussion with its advisers, the Board intends to undertake an exploratory review to consider the viability of a managed separation of the Group's non-leveraged and leveraged businesses in the interests of maximising shareholder value. As these discussions are exploratory at this stage, they may or may not lead to a managed separation of these businesses in due course.
The Board is expected to start its review before year end and complete it by June 2022 and will update the market in due course.
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation ("MAR"). Upon the publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is considered to be in the public domain.
Enquiries
CMC Markets Plc
James Cartwright, Investor Relations investor.relations@cmcmarkets.com
Euan Marshall, Chief Financial Officer
Camarco +44 (0) 20 3757 4994
Geoffrey Pelham-Lane
Jennifer Renwick
Notes to Editors
CMC Markets Plc ("CMC"), whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CMCX (LEI: 213800VB75KAZBFH5U07), was established in 1989 and is now one of the world's leading online financial trading businesses. The Group serves retail and institutional clients through regulated offices and branches in 12 countries, with a significant presence in the UK, Australia, Germany and Singapore. CMC offers an award-winning, online and mobile trading platform, enabling clients to trade over 10,000 financial instruments across shares, indices, foreign currencies, commodities and treasuries through contracts for difference ("CFDs"), financial spread bets (in the UK and Ireland only) and, in Australia, access stockbroking services. More information is available at http://www.cmcmarkets.com/group/