Swiss Forex broker Swissquote Group Holding SA (SWX:SQN) has earlier today posted its financial metrics for the first half of 2015, with revenues up in annual terms but profit numbers negatively affected by “Black Thursday” events.
The broker posted its first ever net loss for a six-month period – it incurred a CHF 10.6 million (US$11.08 million) net loss in the first six months of 2015. This result reflected provisions of CHF 25 million that the group took to cover negative client balances caused by the Swiss franc spike on January 15, 2015.
The pre-tax profit for the first half of 2015 was CHF 11.7 million, down 11.1% from the result from last year. The drop was due to increased marketing costs.
And now let’s take a look at the solid side of the metrics:
- Net revenues in the first six months of 2015 grew 5.2% year-on-year to CHF 74 million. All business areas, except for interest operations, contributed to the rise.
- Net eForex income grew 3.6% to CHF 26.7 million, whereas net trading income rose 43% to CHF 9.1 million.
- The total number of accounts rose by 3.7% to 227,223, as the group kept attracting new clients.
- New net monies surged 27.1% to CHF 580.2 million.
- Assets under custody rose 6.4% to CHF 11.526 billion.
Full-year outlook
Swissquote struck an upbeat note regarding full-year 2015. The group expects to see a positive net profit, net revenue growth in the region of 10% and net new monies exceeding CHF 1 billion for 2015.
A long-term partnership with PostFinance is set to go live this fall and the group expects to continue to benefit from a partnership with Manchester United.
To view the official announcement, click here.