CMC Markets shares boosted by split talks confirmation

Digital trader CMC Markets confirmed today it is mulling splitting the business in two under plans being led by its founder and chief Lord Peter Cruddas, boosting its share price.

CMC, a favourite among the City press, is in the preliminary stages of exploring how it could carve out into two businesses, one focusing on leveraged trading and another on investment products.

Its shares were up over six per cent in afternoon trading.

The firm said in a statement today “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 confirmation comes after Sky News reported on the weekend that Lord Cruddas was considering a split. Cruddas has a majority stake in the firm he founded in 1989.

CMC’s core derivatives trading business has ridden the wave of a boom in trading as inexperienced investors tried their hand in financial markets to pass the time during lockdowns.

CMC’s new investment business is being seen as a potential rival to the likes of AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown by offering more accessible products such as ISAs.