5th Nov 2018 09:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - Investing website operator ADVFN PLC said Monday its annual profit doubled amid strong expansion in revenue and user numbers, as its move in crytocurrency began to deliver results.
For the year ended June, pretax profit doubled to GBP442,000 from GBP214,000 the year prior. This was after revenue rose 12% to GBP9.2 million from GBP8.2 million the year before.
ADVFN Chief Executive Officer Clement Chambers said it was a "very interesting and challenging year, one that has seen us add significant upside potential to ADVFN. 2017 was the year of Bitcoin, which saw Cryptocurrency and blockchains explode on to centre stage of the financial markets. While even at the peak around Christmas of 2017 the Cryptocurrency market was a tiny market in comparison with forex and equities markets, it is of huge interest to the global private investor."
ADVFN explained its registered users jumped to 4.5 million from 4.0 million the year prior. This was ahead of its full year target of 4.2 million users.
"The timing of the Bitcoin bubble was fortunate as private investor interest in equities has been at an all-time low," Chambers added. "It is perverse but our business in equities flourishes best when the market crashes and our customers are hurt by corrections and slumps. In strong markets investor complacency is not good for our business and we rely on the diversified nature of our sales to maintain revenue."
ADVFN does not pay a dividend.
Chambers believes its blockchain business can be as "lucrative" as its equities business.
"Equities and Blockchain have distinct audiences and we find the combination exciting", Chambers said. "We believe our market potential just grew significantly and that we can grow to fill it. It is important for us to keep focused on the technology and continue to strive to be ahead of this new market changing process. The Blockchain and Crypto Currencies are a new area that we are building upon, which could open up new opportunities that I hope we can develop and into which we can push the business."
Shares in ADVFN were 1.6% higher at 27.95 pence on Monday.
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