WorldSpreads Revenues Up 39% on International Growth

RTE Business

Spread betting firm WorldSpreads has reported pre-tax profits of €4.56m for the year ending March 2009, up from a restated figure of €2.28m the previous year. Revenues from continuing operations rose by 39% to €14.9m as the company said it saw strong trading conditions, especially in the period from October until December 2008.

It said that average financial bets per day jumped by 92% to 5,750 from 3,000 in 2008, while 3,924 new clients were registered in the year to March. During the year, the firm entered new markets in Poland, Russia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

It also said that higher than expected growth has been recorded in the established markets of Spain, Hungary and Greece. This protected the group somewhat from the uncertain economic conditions in the Irish and UK economies, it added.

In April, WorldSpreads sold its sports betting business to the head of the division, Fergus Rice for €250,000. The sports business includes a sports spread betting business and Supreme Odds Limited, its fixed odds betting division. At the time of the sale, WorldSpreads said it saw sports spread betting as a niche markets business.

In its results statement this evening, WorldSpreads said it was not proposing to pay a dividend for the financial year, but said it will review its dividend policy from ‘time to time as appropriate’.

‘All segments of the business are performing well and further growth is expected during the current fiscal year driven largely by our continued international expansion,’ commented CEO Conor Foley.

MAIN FACTS:

- Revenue from continuing operations: up 39% to EUR14.9 million (£12.5 million) (2008: EUR10.7 million, BP9.0 million)

- Adjusted operating profit from continuing operations excluding the prior year IPO costs: up 40% to EUR4.6 million (£3.8 million) (2007: EUR3.2 million, £2.7 million)

- Basic EPS on continuing operations: up to 10.4 euro-cents per sare from 4.5 euro-cents per share in 2008

- Strong balance sheet with net assets of EUR17.4 million (£14.7 million) (2008: EUR16.1 million, £13.6 million)

- The Board is confident that the growth rates experienced over the past few years will be maintained.

- Net assets of EUR17.4 million (£14.7 million) (2008: EUR16.1 million, £13.6 million) the Group is in a strong financial position.

- During the year the Group repaid in full the EUR3 million (£2.5 million) in mezzanine finance which it had borrowed from Anglo Irish Bank in 2005.

- The Group’s continued focus on small to medium sized clients and tight credit policies have ensured that the Group continues to experience low levels of bad debt with a total bad debt charge for the year of less than 3%.

Thoughts: Worldspreads is still a small spread betting provider but seems to be pushing the right buttons – looking abroad for growth and expanding through the white-labelling route. So the company recorded a net profit of €1.9 million for the year, a marginal decline on the previous period. LON:WSPR shares are down some 6% this morning though which could perhaps be attributed to WorldSpreads chief executive stating that growth levels have subsided with a relatively slower start to the new financial year due to lower volatility levels.

Tags: spread betting, worldspreads

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 3:47 pm and is filed under Financial Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.