FLOW TRADERS Q421 RESULTS
FLOW TRADERS Q421 RESULTS
Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Flow Traders N.V.
(Euronext: FLOW) announces its unaudited
Q421
results.
Highlights
- Market ETP Value Traded increased
20% quarter-on-quarter and by 5% FY21 vs FY20
- Flow Traders ETP Value Traded
increased 13% quarter-on-quarter and by 2% FY21 vs FY20
- Flow Traders NTI increased to €80.3m
in Q421 reflecting a more active market environment. This compares
to NTI of €67.1m in Q321 and €130.3m in Q420. FY21 NTI was €384.0m
vs €933.4m in FY20
- Total operating expenses of €55.4m
incurred in Q421, which included €0.6m of COVID-related one-off
expenses. Employee expenses included €8.6m impact of prior year
variable remuneration
- 613 FTEs as at 31 December 2021
compared to 603 as at 30 September 2021 and 554 as at 31 December
2020
- Q421 Normalized EBITDA reached
€32.6m with a margin of 41% contributing to FY21 Normalized EBITDA
of €175.3m with a margin of 46%. Reported Q421 EBITDA reached
€24.9m with a margin of 31% contributing to FY21 EBITDA of €159.4m
with a margin of 41% reflecting the IFRS treatment of the
share-based variable remuneration plans
- Q421 Net Profit amounted to €16.0m
with Basic EPS of €0.37. FY21 Net Profit amounted to €114.9m with
Basic EPS of €2.63
- Regulatory Own Funds Requirement
(OFR) as at 31 December 2021 was €243m, resulting in excess capital
of €240m as at 31 December 2021. Trading capital stood at €611m at
the end of the fourth quarter
- Flow Traders proposes a final FY21
dividend of €0.35, implying a €1.35 total dividend for FY21 and a
51% dividend payout ratio. Payout ratio reflects a greater need to
retain capital given expected increased trading opportunities ahead
in strategic growth activities
Financial Overview
€million |
Q421 |
Q321 |
FY21 |
FY20 |
Net trading income |
80.3 |
67.1 |
384.0 |
933.4 |
EMEA (Europe) |
59.8 |
42.7 |
245.8 |
552.5 |
Americas |
8.1 |
10.0 |
74.4 |
283.8 |
APAC |
12.4 |
14.4 |
63.8 |
97.2 |
|
|
|
|
|
Net trading
income |
80.3 |
67.1 |
384.0 |
933.4 |
Employee expenses1 |
37.0 |
35.0 |
156.2 |
274.4 |
Technology
expenses |
13.2 |
12.4 |
49.7 |
46.2 |
Other
expenses |
4.6 |
4.3 |
16.3 |
14.7 |
One-off expenses |
0.6 |
0.6 |
2.5 |
11.4 |
Total operating
expenses |
55.4 |
52.2 |
224.7 |
346.8 |
EBITDA |
24.9 |
14.9 |
159.4 |
586.6 |
Normalized EBITDA2 |
32.6 |
24.6 |
175.3 |
534.7 |
Depreciation / amortisation |
3.9 |
3.8 |
15.2 |
14.2 |
Write off of (in)
tangible assets |
- |
- |
- |
0.1 |
Results of equity-accounted investments |
(0.5) |
- |
(0.6) |
0.4 |
Profit before
tax |
21.6 |
11.1 |
144.7 |
571.9 |
Tax |
5.5 |
2.4 |
29.8 |
107.4 |
Net profit |
16.0 |
8.7 |
114.9 |
464.5 |
Basic EPS3 (€) |
0.37 |
0.20 |
2.63 |
10.26 |
Fully diluted
EPS4 (€) |
0.35 |
0.19 |
2.52 |
9.81 |
EBITDA
margin |
31% |
22% |
41% |
63% |
Normalized EBITDA
margin2 |
41% |
37% |
46% |
57% |
Value Traded Overview
€billion |
Q421 |
Q321 |
Change |
FY21 |
FY20 |
Change |
Flow Traders ETP Value Traded |
410.2 |
362.6 |
13% |
1,540.7 |
1,515.4 |
2% |
EMEA (Europe) |
181.5 |
155.5 |
17% |
703.3 |
767.3 |
(8%) |
Americas |
202.3 |
182.1 |
11% |
740.6 |
671.8 |
10% |
APAC ex China |
26.4 |
25.0 |
5% |
96.8 |
76.2 |
27% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Flow Traders’ non-ETP Value Traded |
1,231 |
1,110 |
11% |
4,209 |
3,695 |
14% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Market ETP Value Traded5 |
10,666 |
8,853 |
20% |
36,835 |
34,920 |
5% |
EMEA (Europe) |
532 |
443 |
20% |
2,035 |
2,039 |
0% |
Americas |
9,103 |
7,421 |
23% |
31,056 |
29,541 |
5% |
APAC |
1,032 |
990 |
4% |
3,744 |
3,339 |
12% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
APAC ex China |
344 |
330 |
4% |
1,377 |
1,680 |
(18%) |
Regional Highlights
EMEA:
- Strong trading performance across
the region with increased trading activity as Flow Traders
maintained its position as the leading liquidity provider in ETPs,
both on- and off-exchange - #1 position in fixed income, equity and
commodity ETFs
- Further build out of the single bond
market making business with Flow Traders going live on both the
Neptune and MarketAxess RfQ platforms. In addition, published a
white paper entitled “Beyond the inflection point: automation in
fixed income trading” which has been well-received across the
market
- Crypto ETP listings in EMEA have
grown sharply quarter-on-quarter and Flow Traders is a liquidity
provider across 125 listings with a c. 45% market share in Q4 and
in 2021 as a whole
- Continued to drive the development
of the digital asset and decentralized finance space through
participating in D2X’s seed funding round, to build the first
institutional-grade and regulated options and futures exchange for
digital assets in Europe
AMERICAS:
- Continued strategic focus on the
fixed income business as Flow Traders became a disclosed market
maker on MarketAxess for high yield bonds in Q4. During the first
full month active on MarketAxess and with only 200 counterparties
on boarded, Flow Traders achieved the rank of 7th most active bond
market maker by ticket count. This not only highlights Flow
Traders’ pricing strength but also demonstrates that the recent
fixed income investments are gaining traction
- Further momentum in ETF Lead Market
Maker activities- 14 listings added in Q4 and 52 in total for 2021.
Notable ESG LMMs in 2021 included full BNY Mellon suite (BKUS,
BKIS, BKES), iShares (BECO), NorthernTrust (FEHY, FEDM), Janus
Henderson (SXUS), Schwab (SAEF) and VanEck (GMET)
- Well prepared for the eventual
launch of spot crypto ETFs in the US and Flow Traders has been
sharing best practice from other markets with issuers and key
stakeholders. Flow Traders is already a registered market maker for
BITO, BTF, XBTF, BITS and recorded a significant primary and
secondary market share on the first trading day of BITO
- Participation in MEMX’s second
funding round again demonstrated Flow Traders’ dedicated,
pro-active strategic ecosystem approach and follows the initial
investment made in May 2020
APAC:
- Solid trading performance with
elevated volatility levels across all asset classes - increased
activity in fixed income driven by the China real estate debt
market
- Strengthened and deepened the
existing partnership with the HKEx by acting as liquidity provider
on the new MSCI China A50 connect future, which is constructed from
the MSCI China A Index, a broad-based benchmark index which
captures large- and mid-cap China A-shares
- Work continued on preparations to
access the on-shore China market while awaiting regulatory feedback
from the Chinese authorities with respect to the recent QFII
application
- Assisting the ASX with the
anticipated forthcoming launches of the first Bitcoin and Ethereum
ETFs as Flow Traders remains at the forefront of enabling this fast
growing crypto asset class
Outlook
- In order to accelerate the
structural growth in the core ETP business as well in fixed income
and digital assets, guidance remains for a maximum growth in fixed
operating expenses of c. 15% for 2022. FTEs are expected to grow by
c. 10% in 2022
- Substantial progress has been made
in the detailed and thorough review of Flow Traders’ capital
structure as announced at the time of the previous trading update
and Flow Traders will remain focused on all arising opportunities
to create shareholder value through systematic capital management
going forward
Management Board Comments
Dennis Dijkstra, CEO,
stated:“In 2021 as a whole, we
made considerable progress in our three key strategic growth focus
areas relating to equities, fixed income and digital assets. 2021
saw record ETP value traded versus last year, which in itself was a
record for our business and our institutional counterparty base has
grown to more than 2,000. The expansion of our single bond market
making business continues apace and we have broadened and deepened
our presence in the digital assets space. Despite increasing
competition for talent in the market, we have been successful in
attracting and recruiting the best talent and have welcomed a large
number of new colleagues in the past year.
“We also maintained our conservative capital position while
implementing this growth strategy. From a regulatory standpoint, we
continue to advocate for a level playing field in terms of capital
requirements across our global ecosystem. Remaining cognisant of
our trading capital position as well as the growth opportunities
ahead, we have elected to pay a €0.35 per share final dividend to
shareholders.
“On behalf of the entire Management Board, I would like to take
the opportunity to pay tribute to the professionalism, resilience,
and loyalty of all our colleagues globally this past year. We are
immensely grateful to our colleagues for their tremendous hard work
which allowed for our considerable operational and strategic
achievements and successes in 2021.”
Folkert Joling, Chief
Trading Officer,
added:“Heightened levels of market activity
delivered a stronger trading performance in the fourth quarter.
However, the factors evident during Q3 once again impacted trading
results in the US in this quarter. We have continued to expand our
market making capabilities in fixed income, crypto, FX and precious
metals as we broaden our trading activities even further across
different products and asset classes. Flow Traders continues to
believe that US investors should have access to an array of robust
crypto products such as the crypto future contracts, the recently
launched future-based crypto ETFs, as well as the highly
anticipated spot crypto ETFs with all the protections and oversight
offered by the SEC and other US regulators. Looking ahead, in
addition to crypto, we are currently working to expand our fixed
income business in APAC and naturally expect even greater
contributions from all our non-ETP market making activities
throughout the course of 2022.”
Mike Kuehnel, Chief
Financial
Officer,
added:“It was pleasing to see further proof points
in our dedicated strategic ecosystem approach as we completed
investments in MEMX and D2X as we leverage the ongoing
technological shifts in the financial markets as well as seeking to
accelerate our strategy. We have made substantial progress in the
detailed and thorough review of our capital structure. We continue
to see multiple attractive growth opportunities ahead and
accordingly growing trading capital is a key focus for us given its
ability to generate attractive returns. This will allow us to
capture these growth opportunities to the fullest extent. From a
cost perspective, our guidance remains the same as last year as we
further invest in the business in 2022 and we maintain fully
committed to firm cost control irrespective of our multi-year
growth agenda. Lastly, work has also commenced to update and
further refine our strategic roadmap and this will be shared with
stakeholders at a capital markets day to be held during the first
half of this year.”
Preliminary Financial Calendar
4 March 2022
Release 2021 Annual
Report 31 March 2022
Start
silent period ahead of Q122 trading update 22 April 2022
Release
Q122 trading update (no analyst conference call)29 April 2022
AGM3
May
2022 FY21
final dividend proposed ex-dividend date4 May
2002 FY21
final dividend proposed record date6 May
2022 FY21
final dividend proposed payment date30 June
2022 Start
silent period ahead of H122 results22 July
2022 Release
H122 results (inc. analyst conference call)
Analyst Conference Call and Webcast
The Q421 results analyst conference call will be held at 10:00
am CET on Thursday 10 February 2022. The presentation will also be
accessible via www.flowtraders.com/investors/results-centre, where
the presentation can be downloaded and the conference call can be
followed via a listen-only audio webcast. A replay of the
conference call will be available on the company website for at
least 90 days.
Contact Details
Flow Traders N.V.
InvestorsJonathan BergerPhone:
+31 20
7996799Email: investor.relations@flowtraders.com
MediaLaura PeijsPhone:
+31 20
7996799Email: press@flowtraders.com
About Flow Traders
Flow Traders is a leading global financial technology-enabled
liquidity provider in financial products, historically specialized
in Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), now expanding into other asset
classes. Flow Traders ensures the provision of liquidity to support
the uninterrupted functioning of financial markets. This allows
investors to continue to buy or sell ETPs or other financial
instruments under all market circumstances. We continuously grow
our organization, ensuring that our trading desks in Europe, the
Americas and Asia can provide liquidity across all major exchanges,
globally, 24 hours a day. Founded in 2004, we continue to cultivate
the entrepreneurial, innovative and team-oriented culture that has
been with us since the beginning. Please visit www.flowtraders.com
for more information.
Notes
1. Fixed employee expenses: Q421 - €13.5m; Q321
- €14.1m; FY21 - €53.7m; FY20 - €46.4m
2. Normalized EBITDA and margin is based on the
standard 35% profit share of operating result across the various
financial periods without any IFRS 2 adjustments for share-based
payments. A reconciliation to reported EBITDA is presented
below:
€million |
Q421 |
Q321 |
FY21 |
FY20 |
Normalized EBITDA |
32.6 |
24.6 |
175.3 |
534.7 |
Prior year share plans |
8.6 |
7.9 |
27.3 |
3.3 |
Current year share plan deferral |
(0.9) |
(1.3) |
(14.4) |
(55.2) |
Variable remuneration composition |
- |
3.1 |
3.1 |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
Reported EBITDA |
24.9 |
14.9 |
159.4 |
586.6 |
3. Weighted average shares outstanding: Q421 -
43,177,846; Q321 - 43,570,015; FY21 - 43,699,300; FY20 -
45,276,693. 43,036,366 shares outstanding at 31 December 2021
4. Determined by adjusting the basic EPS for
the effects of all dilutive share-based payments to employees
5. Source - Flow Traders analysis
Important Legal Information
This press release is prepared by Flow Traders N.V. and is for
information purposes only. It is not a recommendation to engage in
investment activities and you must not rely on the content of this
document when making any investment decisions. The information in
this document does not constitute legal, tax, or investment advice
and is not to be regarded as investor marketing or marketing of any
security or financial instrument, or as an offer to buy or sell, or
as a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell, securities or
financial instruments. The information and materials contained in
this press release are provided ‘as is’ and Flow Traders N.V. or
any of its affiliates (“Flow Traders”) do not warrant the accuracy,
adequacy or completeness of the information and materials and
expressly disclaim liability for any errors or omissions. This
press release is not intended to be, and shall not constitute in
any way a binding or legal agreement, or impose any legal
obligation on Flow Traders. All intellectual property rights,
including trademarks, are those of their respective owners. All
rights reserved. All proprietary rights and interest in or
connected with this publication shall vest in Flow Traders. No part
of it may be redistributed or reproduced without the prior written
permission of Flow Traders. This press release may include
forward-looking statements, which are based on Flow Traders’
current expectations and projections about future events, and are
not guarantees of future performance. Forward looking statements
are statements that are not historical facts, including statements
about our beliefs and expectations. Words such as “may”, “will”,
“would”, “should”, “expect”, “intend”, “estimate”, “anticipate”,
“project”, “believe”, “could”, “hope”, “seek”, “plan”, “foresee”,
“aim”, “objective”, “potential”, “goal” “strategy”, “target”,
“continue” and similar expressions or their negatives are used to
identify these forward-looking statements. By their nature,
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties, assumptions and other factors because they relate to
events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future
whether or not outside the control of Flow Traders. Such factors
may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Accordingly, no undue reliance should be placed on any
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only
as at the date at which they are made. Flow Traders expressly
disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update, review or revise
any forward-looking statements contained in this press release to
reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events,
conditions or circumstances on which such statements are based
unless required to do so by applicable law. Financial objectives
are internal objectives of Flow Traders to measure its operational
performance and should not be read as indicating that Flow Traders
is targeting such metrics for any particular fiscal year. Flow
Traders’ ability to achieve these financial objectives is
inherently subject to significant business, economic and
competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are
beyond Flow Traders’ control, and upon assumptions with respect to
future business decisions that are subject to change. As a result,
Flow Traders’ actual results may vary from these financial
objectives, and those variations may be material. Efficiencies are
net, before tax and on a run-rate basis, i.e. taking into account
the full-year impact of any measure to be undertaken before the end
of the period mentioned. The expected operating efficiencies and
cost savings were prepared on the basis of a number of assumptions,
projections and estimates, many of which depend on factors that are
beyond Flow Traders’ control. These assumptions, projections and
estimates are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and
actual results may differ, perhaps materially, from those
projected. Flow Traders cannot provide any assurance that these
assumptions are correct and that these projections and estimates
will reflect Flow Traders’ actual results of operations.
By accepting this document you agree to the terms set out above.
If you do not agree with the terms set out above please notify
legal.amsterdam@nl.flowtraders.com immediately and delete or
destroy this document.
Market Abuse Regulation
This press release contains information within the meaning of
Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.
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