Japanese retail FX giant MONEX Group has today released its financial results for the first half of the financial year, depicting a bleak period within its commercial operation which has extended across several months.
In congruence with many FX companies across the globe, MONEX Group entered 2014 with contracted volumes over last year’s highs, a dynamic which worsened as spring gave way to summer, with signs of return to form only becoming evident in September.
On an annual basis, comparing the first half of this year, whcih ended September 30, 2014, net income amounted to 1.9 billion Yen, significantly down from the same period last year in which the company reported 5.2 billion yen.
The tailing off of fortunes for MONEX Group began in October 2013, therefore last year’s first half consisted of revenues earned during a sustained period of extemely high volumes between March and September 2013.
When considering the company’s operating revenue, the company suffered a decline from 29.2 billion yen (approx $270 million) in the first half of the financial year 2013, to 22.8 billion yen (approx $210 million) in the first half of 2014.
As far as net income attributable to owners of MONEX Group is concerned, a much more important matter made itself apparent, insofar as the company actually made a loss of 300 million yen (approx $2.7 million), when compared to last year’s profit of 6.7 billion yen (approx $62 million), representing a vast differential in fortunes.
The second quarter of the financial year ending September 30, 2015, however, was largely responsible for the most significant drop in revenues. This period which ran from July to September 2014 provided a loss of 862 million yen (approx $8 million) in net income attributable to owners of MONEX Group.
MONEX Group began to report substantially higher volumes for September, paving the way toward a brighter second half of this financial year, with its revenues having doubled over that of August.
Alongside its quarterly reuslts, MONEX Group has been aiming to advance its effective corporate governance system, and has therefore made a structural and organizational change to the company’s operations. 7 out of 11 members of its Board of Directors are non-executive and non-full-time members; 6 of them also fulfill requirements as both “Outside Director” and “Independent Director”.
The Company established the Board of Directors Office, which directly reports to the Board of Directors, in order to continue to enhance its corporate governance system by seeking for a better use of abilities and expertise of its Outside Directors and Independent Directors and reinforcing business execution oversight by them. For this purpose, the Audit Committee Office was reorganized into the Board of Directors Office.
On this basis, Nozomi Takasaki, who previously held the position of Executive Director within the company’s Audit Committee Office will now become Executive Director of the Board of Directors Office.
The company also phased out its MetaTrader 4 platform this week, as part of a company-wide directive to focus on its proprietary platforms, with subsidiary IBFX concentrating on Tradestation in North America, and Japanese clients now operating from MONEX Group’s home-market in-house trading platform.
For the full financial results from MONEX Group, click here.