London-based spread-betting company earnings rocket
February 26, 2007admin No Comments »Financial spread-betting company London Capital Group has seen profits soar in the past year according to results published this morning.
The operator of the
Capital Spreads website said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 144% to just over £4m (US$7.9m) on a turnover that rose 78% to £8.65m. Operating profit rose 142% to £3.87m. The company announced a maiden dividend of 1.7p.
Frank Chapman, chief executive said the company was “very happy” with the results. “We were given a tough target by our brokers and we did it.”
He added that the company had benefited from rising equity markets over the year. However, he added that clients were more comfortable with going short when betting on indices, currencies and commodities. “It is a huge leap to go negative on shares, but with markets like the indices it is just a number.”
Capital Spreads saw live spread-betting client accounts increase 95% over the year to 8,708. The company said active accounts percentage over a month – that is accounts with at least one transaction in the past month – had stayed steady at over 30% while the three-month active percentage remained at over 40%. The company said it had seen average trades per quarter rise 115% to 278,000.
Chapman said he hoped the company would see more growth in Europe in 2007. With the introduction of the EU’s Mifid rules in 2008, Capital Spreads will “have the passport to enter the French and German markets”. Capital Spreads already has French and German language sites, as well as a white-label deals in Scandinavia, Greece and South Africa.
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