Plus500 sets special dividend as profit jumps on virus-led customer additions (updated)
17/02/2021 07:42
(Adds background on the sector, more details from the Plus500
statement)
Feb 17 (Reuters) - Plus500 Ltd's PLUSP.L full-year core
profit more than doubled and the online trading platform set a
special dividend as it added more customers buoyed by
coronavirus-driven market volatility.
Plus500 and its rivals, IG IGG.L and CMC CMCX.L have had
a stellar year helped by a pandemic-driven market frenzy, which
had started with a sharp selloff led by fears of the economic
impact of the crisis but it was then followed by a rebound,
thanks to vaccinations and stimulus steps.
"A number of market trends emerged and had an influence on
the performance of the company during the year," Plus500 said.
The company, which offers more than 2,500 financial
instruments including equities, indices, commodities, options,
foreign exchange and cryptocurrencies, said revenue in the
current year will grow from "more normalised levels" it saw in
2019.
Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and
amortization jumped to $515.9 million for the 12 months ended
Dec. 31 from $192.3 million a year earlier, while revenue surged
to $872.5 million from $354.5 million.
Plus500 said over 79% of the revenue was generated from
mobile or tablet devices, while it executed 82 million customer
trades on its platform compared to the 35 million in 2019.
(Reporting by Muvija M and Priyanshi Mandhan in Bengaluru;
Editing by Rashmi Aich)
((Muvija.M@thomsonreuters.com; within UK: +44 20 7542 1810,
outside UK: +91 80 61822698; Twitter: https://twitter.com/muvija_m;))