By Victor Golovtchenko
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) listed operator offering foreign exchange and CFDs trading Plus500 Ltd (L:PLUSP) has announced its full year results for 2015. The company has reported that its revenues have increased by 20 per cent to $275.6 million.
Plus500 has continued its solid performance throughout the year, on-boarding more new clients and retaining more active clients, where growth was 28 per cent and 29 per cent respectively. For the full year 2015, the brokerage reported that new clients totaled 84,858, while active clients were reported at 136,540.
The figures above did not help the company’s margins, as it had to increase compliance costs after it was prompted by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority to review its client on-boarding procedures.
Commenting on the results, the current CEO of Plus500 Gal Haber said: “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.”
The company has also announced that it is reshuffling its top management as it promotes Asaf Elimelech to become the new CEO of the firm, while Gal Haber is to be appointed as a Managing Director.
Looking at the Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) the company has reported a drop which was less than expected at 132.9 million. The figure is lower by 8.6 per cent, reflecting the challenges which the company faced with on boarding new clients and its operational disruptions in May last year.
Looking at key metrics, the Average Revenue Per User has dropped somewhat when compared to 2014 at $2,019. The number is lower by 6.5 per cent when compared to last year’s $2,160. Significant cash flows have enabled the declaration of substantial dividends The total dividend of Plus500 represents a pay-out of 100 per cent of net profit for the year ending 31 December 2015, and the company maintained a 60 per cent pay-out ratio with payment of special dividends and flexibility to buyback shares.
Gal Haber added on the matter: "Significant cash flows have enabled the declaration of substantial dividends despite the significant disruption to our business in May 2015, which required a remediation of our UK customer base and for the remainder of the year suspension of Plus500UK onboarding new customers."