Plus500 to buy Brazilian broker-dealer Guru in Latin America push

Plus500 has conditionally agreed to buy full ownership of Guru Corretora de Títulos e Valores Mobiliários Ltda, a Brazilian broker-dealer regulated by the country's central bank and securities regulator, in a move the London-listed group says accelerates its expansion across Latin America. According to the company announcement, the consideration is payable on completion and the deal remains subject to customary regulatory approvals and other standard closing conditions.

Contents

01

A licensed foothold in Brazil's retail market

02

Building on Nelogica and Colombia

03

Second deal in about a week

A licensed foothold in Brazil's retail market

Guru is a securities brokerage firm organised under Brazilian law, authorised to operate by the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) and subject to the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil (CVM). Plus500 said that regulatory framework will let it build and broaden its local offering to include Brazilian stocks, futures, options and fixed income securities, while Guru's local expertise is expected to speed up growth and support new products and services for local customers.

Plus500 described Brazil as Latin America's largest economy and one of the world's most dynamic retail trading markets. The announcement's headline also described Brazil as the second largest derivatives market globally, a ranking the footnote attributes to the Futures Industry Association (FIA).

For readers new to the sector, a broker-dealer is a licensed firm that can execute trades and deal in securities on behalf of clients. Contracts for difference (CFDs), the over-the-counter products Plus500 is best known for, are derivative contracts that let traders speculate on price movements without owning the underlying asset.

Building on Nelogica and Colombia

The acquisition builds on Plus500's existing business-to-business partnership with Nelogica and its local presence in Colombia, which the group entered recently. Plus500 said the deal also advances its wider ambition to give customers across Latin America access to US derivatives markets and a more comprehensive product range, and that it will keep pursuing growth in the region both organically and through acquisitions.

Chief executive David Zruia framed the purchase as a licence-and-team deal. "Brazil is one of the world's most attractive trading markets, and acquiring Guru gives us the licence, the experienced local team and the regulatory framework to thrive," he said in the announcement. He added that combining Plus500's proprietary technology and multi-asset trading expertise with the Nelogica partnership would allow a far broader range of products, including access to US derivatives.

Plus500 characterised the transaction as a targeted bolt-on acquisition: buying a business backed by local regulatory licences, market access and operational expertise, then scaling it with the group's own technology and product development. It said the purchase will be funded entirely from existing cash resources of more than US$860 million as at 30 June 2026.

Second deal in about a week

The Guru agreement is Plus500's second strategic acquisition in approximately one week, following its recently announced Hedge acquisition in the United States. The company presented the consecutive deals as evidence of its execution on core strategic priorities and its commitment to long-term shareholder value, a characterisation that reflects management's own view rather than an independent assessment.

Plus500 describes itself as a global multi-asset fintech group running proprietary trading platforms, offering CFDs, share dealing, and futures and options on futures. It holds operating licences and is regulated in the United Kingdom, Australia, Cyprus, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, the Seychelles, the United States, Estonia, Japan, the UAE, the Bahamas, Canada, Colombia and India. Through its over-the-counter portfolio it offers more than 2,500 underlying instruments spanning equities, indices, commodities, options, exchange-traded funds, foreign exchange and cryptocurrencies, and its customers can trade those products in more than 60 countries and 30 languages.

The group says its over-the-counter customers cannot be subject to negative balances, and it provides an unlimited free demo account plus free risk management tools, including stop losses, to help traders manage leveraged exposure. Plus500 has traded on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker PLUS since 24 July 2013 and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 and STOXX Europe 600 indices.

The announcement includes forward-looking statements about the group's future prospects, developments and strategies. Plus500 said these are based on current expectations and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, pointing to the Risk Management Framework section of its most recent annual report. It also said each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the announcement and that it does not intend to update them except as required by law or listing rules.