Marex Spectron, the global commodities broker, today announced record profits before tax of $27.0 million for the year through to 31 December 2016, a 53% increase on the $17.6 million reported in 2015, and maintains the firm’s positive earnings trajectory.
Adjusted EBITDA for the year was also a record $37.1 million, compared with $31.0 million in 2015, $24.8 million in 2014 and $11.3 million in 2013. Gross revenue for the year was $330.4 million, compared with 2015’s $347.7 million, with the decline due essentially to exiting non-profitable businesses.
Over the past few years, the firm has rationalised and exited non-profitable activities.
Highlights during the year included:
- Active North American expansion, having hired a leading Canadian Physical Oil team, opened a Calgary office, and built an in-house electronic marketplace to trade physical and financial crude products. It also hired one of the largest Light Ends brokers in the US and grew the US Power business.
- Growth in Asia, with a new Metals trading capability added to Singapore (reflecting the importance of the Asian markets to Marex Spectron’s business) and further development of its brokerage capabilities.
- Positive developments in Europe, building Energy Clearing capabilities and establishing a team to broker Clean Freight in London.
- Leveraging the new NEON Platform, a trading, risk and data platform, to win electronic business.
- Building-out its Metals OTC offering and developing an alternative marketplace to LME’s electronic platform.
- Strengthening the firm’s liquidity resources, with the addition of Barclays as the third bank in the Working Capital Facility.
Ian Lowitt, Marex Spectron’s Chief Executive Officer, commented:
These are strong results and maintain our positive earnings trajectory with significant improvements in profitability over a five-year period. 2016 was an important year for our business as we moved from a cost to a growth focus, investing broadly across products and geographies to improve our diversification and providing a platform for future growth. We have also increased our competiveness, through better content, market intelligence and technology capabilities. In 2017, our focus continues to be on developing our business, winning new clients, adding to our offerings, and gaining market share.
Today our business offers clients a unique proposition, with an unrivalled breadth of coverage across metals, energy and agricultural markets, with leading franchises in all the commodity markets. We are providing extensive services in each of these markets, from global exchange connectivity to leading proprietary data, technology, and quantitative and qualitative analysis. It is these attributes, alongside a robust set of cultural values, that give us our competitive advantage.