17th Feb 2016 07:32
LONDON (Alliance News) - Online financial trading company Plus500 Ltd on Wednesday posted a fall in earnings for 2015 after it was hit by regulatory costs and additional marketing spend, though some of the impact was offset by customer growth.
The company said earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation in the year to the end of December fell to USD132.9 million from USD145.4 million a year earlier, as Ebitda margin plunged to 48.2% from 63.6%.
Plus500 took a heavy hit in the year after it was barred from adding new UK customers in May last year, after drawing regulatory scrutiny from the Financial Conduct Authority, the City regulator, over its anti-money laundering procedures. It did not resume onboarding UK customers until the first week of 2016.
The costs related to this, along with additional marketing costs for the group, caused the margin to decline, though revenue rose to USD275.6 million from USD228.9 million as it still managed to increase its total number of active customers by 29% to 136,540, up from 105,976 at the end of 2014.
"We made significant progress enhancing our regulatory compliance and onboarding processes. We were pleased that Plus500UK began accepting new UK customers again in January 2016 and we are not subject to any regulatory restrictions in each of our regulated entities," said Chief Executive Gal Haber.
Back in November, fellow London listing Playtech PLC terminated its agreement to acquire Plus500 over concerns it will not be able to secure UK Financial Conduct Authority approval before the end of 2015.
Plus500 said on Wednesday it will promote Asaf Elimelech to joint chief executive officer from February 28, where he will work alongside Haber until the end of April, when Haber will move to managing director. Elimelech will then become sole chief executive officer. He is currently the chief subsidiaries officer for the company.
Due to the fall in earnings, Plus500 said it will pay a final dividend of USD0.2922 per share, trimmed from the USD0.3001 it paid a year earlier. The total dividend, however, will be up to USD0.8405 from USD0.8008 due to the USD0.3362 special dividend the company paid earlier in the year, which was higher than the USD0.2657 special payout made in 2014.
Plus500 said it had made a strong start to the new year, with higher new and active customer numbers, revenue and an improved Ebitda margin.
"We enter 2016 with more high value customers, an enhanced trading platform, more robust processes, a stronger brand and more routes to market, supported by a strong balance sheet. We are therefore confident that Plus500 will continue growing and we believe we will have another successful year with higher EBITDA margin than achieved in 2015," Haber added.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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