JP Morgan in talks over potential Freetrade takeover
JP Morgan is reportedly gearing up to buy stock trading app Freetrade in a grand push to expand its fintech offering.
According to initial reports from Mark Kleinman for Sky News, the City titan has been in talks with the British stock trading app, which allows customers to buy British, American and European stocks and funds without trading fees.
It comes after The Telegraph reported last month that Freetrade was preparing to hire Bank of America to help explore its strategic options, mulling either a sale or a merger.
Freetrade has over £1.4bn assets under management and in its latest accounts had revenues of £12.7m in
the year to September 2021, with a loss of £18.2m.
Sources told Sky News that it was unclear whether the weeks of discussion would result in a deal.
JP Morgan and Freetrade declined to comment on the reports.
Freetrade was founded in 2016 and announced a £30m funding round back in May. However, it was reported that Freetrade called off plans to raise external funding earlier this year at a £700m valuation.
Echoing a similar sentiment to many tech firms, Freetrade also said it would be cutting around 15 per cent of its roughly 300 staff in June, with a company spokesperson saying the action was “taken to reduce costs and extend Freetrade’s cash runway”.
Meanwhile for JP Morgan, snapping up Freetrade would add to its increasingly diversified offering.
The US firm agreed to buy the digital wealth platform Nutmeg in June 2021, complementing the group’s UK digital bank launch under its Chase brand.