Trading Statement

RNS Number : 3639K

Plus500 Limited

16 April 2015

 



16 April 2015

Plus500 Ltd.

("Plus500" or "the Company")

Trading update for the three months ended 31 March 2015

Record numbers ahead of market expectations for Q1 - Revenues of $82.1m

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 2015.

Overview

·     Record number of new¹ and active² customers for the quarter

·     Record revenues for the quarter

·     Continued market share growth in our leading markets

·     Maintained cost effective marketing for new customers

KPIs

Key customer and revenues metrics for the three months ended 31 March 2015 were as follows:

	FY 2014	Q1 2014*	Q1 2015*	%Growth
Revenues Number of new customers1	$228.9m 66,553	$60.7m 20,124	$82.1m 32,880	35% 63%
Number of active customers2	105,976	50,438	67,667	34%
ARPU3	$2,160	$1,204	$1,214	0.8%
AUAC4	$921	$576	$892	55%

*Unaudited

Trading review

Plus500 achieved record revenues in all its leading regulated markets, which are principally in the UK and Western Europe. Plus500's worldwide brand awareness together with positive market conditions helped in achieving these record numbers, including the impact of the exceptional movement in the Swiss Franc in January. Also, the Company released a Windows Phone dedicated app during the period as it continues to invest in R&D to maintain its competitive advantage.

Dividends

One of the strengths of Plus500's business model is its ability to convert net earnings into cash-flow, as reflected in the Board's base 60% pay-out ratio dividend policy. The Board retains flexibility to pay special dividends when the Company generates surplus cash and it is felt appropriate to make such payments. The final dividend and a special dividend for the year ended 31 December 2014 are together payable on 15 May 2015, contributing to a total pay-out for 2014 of $92 million (2013: $41 million).

Outlook

The Board reaffirms its confidence in achieving market expectations for the year as a whole and its commitment to pursuing a progressive dividend policy.

Gal Haber, Chief Executive of Plus500, commented: 

"We are pleased to announce a record quarter ahead of market expectations. Plus500's worldwide brand coupled with our superior proprietary technology along with market volatility contributed to this strong performance.

"We are also proud to be a new sponsor to Atlético Madrid Football Club, the defending La Liga champions and last year's Champions League finalist. Atlético is one of the leading clubs in the world and a natural fit for Plus500. We believe the increased brand awareness resulting from this partnership will help strengthen our position as a leading CFD trading platform."

For further information please contact:

Plus500 Ltd                                                                                                                                         [phone]

Elad Even-Chen, Finance Director, VP Business Development and Head of Investor Relations   

[e-mail]

Liberum - Nomad and Broker                                                                                                       [phone]

Christopher Britton, Josh Hughes, Clayton Bush                                                                                               

MHP Communications                                                                                                                  [phone]

Reg Hoare/Tim Rowntree/Adam Leviton

[e-mail] 

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 2000 different underlying global financial instruments comprising equities, ETFs, foreign exchange, indices and commodities. 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 and Android) and tablets (iOS and Android)) and the internet. 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 over 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 depositing for the first time ever during the period

² Active Customers: Customers who made at least one real money trade during the period

³ Average revenue per user

⁴ Average user acquisition cost

 

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