Israel-based online trading broker Plus500 reported record number of active customers on its platform and revenue for the quarter almost tripling as the market crisis caused a surge in trading activity.
The company also announced that interim chief executive officer David Zruia’s position was made permanent. Zruia took the role of interim CEO on 20 April from Asaf Elimelech who resigned. Elimelech joined Plus500 in 2012 and undertook his role as CEO in 2016. He stepped down after over 4 years at the helm, having navigated the company through turbulence and regulatory changes.
The market volatility brought about in the beginning of the year, remained high in the second quarter and fueled a high level of trading activity.
The second quarter revenue reached $247.6 million from $94.1 million for the same period the previous year. The company also added over 88,000 new customers and reached a record 115,225.
The company reported first quarter revenue in April that reached $316.6 million with 487% increase since the previous year and 230% compared to the last quarter of 2019.
Plus500 offers contracts for difference which enable individual traders to make bets on moves in currencies, stocks and crypto.
The group said its financial position remains stable and driven by strong margins and high cash generation.
Penny Judd, Chairman of Plus500, commented on David Zruia’s appointment:
David has proven his ability over several years with Plus500 as Chief Operating Officer, during which time he has developed a thorough knowledge of the business and has consistently exhibited strong leadership skills. He quickly rose to the challenge of becoming interim CEO and, consequently, he proved to be the outstanding candidate to take on the role permanently, following an extensive internal and external search process carried out by the Board. The Board is looking forward to working with David in the future and we wish him the very best in leading Plus500 going forward.
David Zruia added:
Having been part of the Plus500 team for almost 10 years, I am honoured to be given the opportunity to become CEO of the Company. It has been exciting to lead the business on an interim basis over the last few months and I believe that Plus500 is in an extremely strong position, both operationally and financially, to deliver future growth for our shareholders.
This position is highlighted by our exceptionally strong performance during the first half of 2020. The significant number of New Customers on-boarded is a strong signal of the sophistication and accessibility of our proprietary technology platform. This performance is also a testament to our people, who have been fully committed to ensuring that we have offered our customers a consistent, seamless, high quality service in extremely challenging, and unprecedented, circumstances.
Given our performance in the first half, we remain very confident about the prospects for the Company.
