PLUS Plus500 Ltd

TIDMPLUS

RNS Number : 4068V

Plus500 Limited

18 April 2016

 
 18 April 2016 
 

Plus500 Ltd.

("Plus500" or "the Company")

Trading update for the three months ended 31 March 2016

Record first quarter revenues and active customers

Plus500, a leading online service provider for retail customers to trade CFDs internationally, is pleased to announce the following trading update for the three months ended 31 March 2016.

Overview

   --     Record quarterly revenues of $85.2m and record number of Active Customers 68,000 
   --     Continued market share growth in our leading markets 

-- Volatile market conditions were conducive to high levels of customer trading and new sign ups

   --     Strong new customer additions, up 85%, compared to Q4 2015 

KPIs

Key customer and revenues metrics for the three months ended 31 March 2016 were as follows:

 
                        FY 2015   Q4 2015*   Q1 2015*   Q1 2016*   % Growth    % Growth 
                                                                    Q4 2015/    Q1 2015/ 
                                                                    Q1 2016     Q1 2016 
 
 Revenues               $275.6m    $67.7m     $82.1m     $85.2m       26%         4% 
 New customers(1)       84,858     15,594     32,880     28,792       85%        -12% 
 Active customers(2)    136,540    49,006     67,667     67,821       38%         0% 
 ARPU(3)                $2,019     $1,382     $1,214     $1,256       -9%         3% 
 AUAC(4)                $1,227     $1,591      $892      $1,316      -17%         47% 
 

*Unaudited

Trading review

The Company has reported a strong first quarter's trading with both record quarterly revenues and active customers. Additionally, the Company successfully attracted a high level of new customers, with strong cash conversion.

The Board is especially pleased with this performance relative to the strength of the first quarter of 2015 when the Group benefitted from the on-boarding of a large number of customers as a result of the exceptional movement in the Swiss Franc and its effect on the CFD industry.

Plus500UK resumed the onboarding of new customers in January 2016 and the Board is pleased with progress to date. Although Group total Q1 2016 new customer numbers were down 12% year on year, they were 85% higher than Q4 2015 showing the underlying momentum in the business.

Dividends

As announced on 17 February 2016, the final dividend and a special dividend for the year ended 31 December 2015 are together payable on 11 May 2016, contributing to a total pay-out for 2015 of $96.6 million (2014: $92 million) which represents a pay-out of 100% of net profit for the year ended 31 December 2015. The ex-dividend date was 24 March and the record date was 29 March.

Outlook

The Board is retaining its guidance that the Company will achieve a higher EBITDA margin than that achieved in 2015 and its confidence reflecting the progress to date in 2016 for the outcome of the year as a whole.

The Board reaffirms its base 60% pay-out ratio dividend policy, reflecting the strength of Plus500's business model in its ability to convert net earnings into cash-flow. The Board also retains flexibility to pay special dividends or buy back shares when the Company generates surplus cash, as appropriate.

Asaf Elimelech, the new Chief Executive of Plus500, commented:

"We are very pleased with our first quarter performance which is significantly ahead of the last quarter of 2015, and compares favourably against a very strong first quarter last year. We continue to benefit from volatile market conditions which are stimulating new customer additions and trading activity.

"As we noted in February at the time of the 2015 results, we have more high value customers, an enhanced trading platform, more robust processes, a stronger brand and more routes to market, supported by a strong balance sheet. We are therefore confident that Plus500 will continue growing and believe we will have another successful year."

Annual General Meeting

Plus500's Annual General Meeting will be held on 10 May 2016. Shareholders are welcome to attend, for further information please contact plus500@mhpc.com .

For further information please contact:

Plus500 Ltd +972 4 8189503

Elad Even-Chen, Chief Financial Officer

Liberum - Nomad and Broker +44 20 3100 2222

Clayton Bush, Josh Hughes

MHP Communications +44 20 3128 8100

Reg Hoare, Tim Rowntree, Kelsey Traynor

Plus500@mhpc.com

About Plus500

Company website: www.plus500.com

Plus500 has developed and operates an online trading platform for retail customers to trade CFDs internationally over more than 2,200 different underlying global financial instruments comprising equities, indices, commodities, options, ETFs and foreign exchange. The Company enables retail customers to trade CFDs in more than 50 countries. The trading platform is accessible from multiple operating systems (Window, smartphones (iOS, Android and Windows Phone), tablets (iOS, Android and Surface), Apple Watch and web browsers. The Directors believe that the success of the Company to date has been primarily due to the proprietary technology it has developed and continues to develop to support the trading platform. The trading platform has been designed to be as intuitive and easy to use as possible. The trading platform has been localised into 31 languages. The Directors believe that this emphasis on technology, together with the Company's targeted online marketing strategy, has helped to differentiate the Company from its competitors.

(1) New Customers: Customers who have deposited money into their own account for the first time

(2) Active Customers: Customers who made at least one trade using money on the trading platform during the relevant period

(3) Average revenue per user

(4) Average user acquisition cost

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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April 18, 2016 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)