15th Feb 2022 09:15
(Alliance News) - Plus500 Ltd on Tuesday reported lower revenue and profit last year due to a decline in customer income, but still surpassed its pre-pandemic levels because customer income still remained "consistently strong".
The Haifa, Israel-based provider of online trading platforms registered pretax profit of USD386.4 million for 2021, down 26% from USD523.3 million in 2020, on revenue that fell by 18% to USD718.7 million from USD872.5 million.
The FTSE-100 company blamed a decline in customer income. This fell by 30% to USD702.8 million in 2021 from USD997.5 million the year before.
Nonetheless, Plus500 affirmed that customer Income, a key measure of its underlying performance, was "consistently strong" throughout 2021.
The online trading services provider explained it achieved a "significant milestone" of over 22 million registered customers achieved during the year that drove its "excellent performance".
Furthermore, it emphasised that it still surpassed its pre-pandemic performance with more than doubled revenue of USD718.7 million from USD354.5 million in pre-Covid 2019.
The company declared a final dividend of USD0.3777 per share, down 30% from USD0.5422 the year prior.
In addition, Plus500 declared a special dividend, as it had for 2020. The special dividend amounted to USD0.2218 per share, a 23% decrease from USD0.2870.
During 2021, Plus500 completed a share buyback programme. The company purchased 3.4 million shares for a total of USD64.9 million at an average share price of GBP13.90.
Plus500 shares were trading unchanged in London on Tuesday morning at 1,522.50 pence each.
Plus500 said it has launched a new share buyback programme for 2022. The company plans to purchase an additional amount of shares for up to USD55.0 million.
"The purpose of the new programme is to further emphasise the board's confidence in the prospects of Plus500 and reflects the robust financial position of the group," company said.
The programme will run from Tuesday to December 31.
Looking ahead, Plus500 said it expects to deliver sustainable growth from all of its product offerings over the medium to long term.
The company is confident that future growth will be enabled by its on-going investment in developing its position as a global multi-asset fintech group, specifically through more organic investments in technology and marketing.
"Plus500 delivered another excellent operational and financial performance in 2021 and we made significant progress with our strategic roadmap to develop our position as a leading global multi-asset fintech group," Chief Executive David Zruia commented.
"Our future growth will be delivered through continued development of our technology, particularly in relation to driving customer retention, successfully obtaining new operating licenses and launching new products."
By Abby Amoakuh; [email protected]
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