TIDMPLUS
RNS Number : 9412U
Plus500 Limited
22 October 2014
22 October 2014
Plus500 Ltd.
("Plus500" or "the Company")
Business and Trading Update
Plus500, a leading online service provider for retail customers
to trade CFDs internationally, provides a business and trading
update for the three months ended 30 September 2014.
In the nine months to 30 September 2014, revenue was $162.4m,
151% higher than revenue for the comparative period of 2013 and
surpassing the total revenue generated in the whole of 2013 by 41%,
thereby positioning the Company for another year of strong growth.
Key customer and revenue metrics for the nine and three month
periods ended 30 September 2014 were as follows:
FY 2013 9 months to 30 % Growth 3 months to 30 Sept* % Growth
Sept*
--------------------- ------- ---------------- -------- ---------------------- --------
2013 2014 Q3 2013 Q3 2014
--------------------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ---------- ---------- --------
Revenue $115.1m $64.7m $162.4m 151% $20.0m $56.2m 181%
--------------------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ---------- ---------- --------
Number of
new customers(1) 56,819 37,284 47,523 27% 12,658 14,850 17%
--------------------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ---------- ---------- --------
Number of
active customers(2) 85,795 62,984 85,101 35% 37,000 43,547 18%
--------------------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ---------- ---------- --------
ARPU(3) $1,325 $1,027 $1,908 86% $541 $1,290 138%
--------------------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ---------- ---------- --------
AUAC(4) $632 $689 $826 20% $632 $1,005 59%
--------------------- ------- ------- ------- -------- ---------- ---------- --------
*Unaudited
(1) A customer who has deposited real money into their own
account for the first time
(2) A customer who makes at least one trade using real money on
the trading platform during the relevant period
(3) Average revenue per user
(4) Average user acquisition cost
Strong Growth as the Company's Numerous In-house Initiatives
Drive Success
In Q3 2014, the Company continued to experience strong growth
worldwide as revenue nearly tripled and the ARPU more than doubled
in almost all countries compared with the equivalent period in
2013. Geographically, the vast majority of trading occurred in the
UK and Western Europe. Revenue from the UK accounted for 15% of
total revenue in the quarter (Q3 2013: 15%), and revenue from the
UK combined with Western European countries such as France and
Germany accounted for 70% of total revenue in the quarter (Q3 2013:
70%). Overall, in Q3 2014, 94% of total revenue was derived from
regulated markets, with the remainder from countries where the
Company operates under a legal opinion. The Company expects the
profile of revenues to be similar for full year 2014.
The strength of the Company's proprietary trading platform,
supported by in-house technical expertise, has continued to allow
Plus500 to react quickly to market conditions and offer customers
the ability to trade CFDs immediately following events such as the
initial public offerings of Alibaba and GoPro. Similarly, with the
increased market volatility as a result of the geo-political
situation in Europe as well as the changing global macro
environment, the Company experienced particularly strong growth in
trading in commodities as well as equities. In addition, the
success of the Company's proprietary automated marketing platform
in improving brand awareness across multiple advertising channels
enabled Plus500 to attract a greater number of high value
customers.
During the nine months to 30 September 2014, the Company added
300 new instruments and, during the third quarter, it reduced the
spread of the most popular instruments to very competitive levels,
such as FTSE100 (0.88pips), GBP/USD (1 pip), EUR/USD (1pip) and oil
(3 pips). The same spreads are offered to the entire customer base.
The Company also expanded its live chat feature, to offer more
native language support worldwide.
As a result of the above, the Company was able to attract new
customers and saw ARPU increase to $1,290, representing an increase
of 10% on Q2 2014. AUAC was only 1% higher sequentially, however
the Company is committed to maintaining its marketing spend and
also creating a bespoke campaign to attract a greater number of
higher value customers. The Company is comfortable with the
increase in AUAC in order to gain higher value customers because
the automated function of the marketing machine ensures that it
will not, in aggregate, acquire customers that will not generate
profits for the Company.
Additional Regulatory Approval
Plus500 views its ongoing FCA regulated status as one of its
most important assets and the Company continues to invest in its
operational and compliance infrastructure to maintain that status.
To complement the Company's existing regulatory authorisations in
the UK and Australia, post period end, Plus500 has been granted a
CFD market maker licence from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange
Commission (CySEC) to operate as a regulated investment firm. This
brings the Company in line with other CFD providers that maintain
multiple licences throughout Europe. The Company will continue to
seek additional regulatory approvals in jurisdictions that
represent attractive commercial opportunities.
Research and Development
The Company continues to invest in R&D in order to maintain
its competitive advantage. Over the year, the Company has
experienced an increased use of mobile and tablet devices to trade.
As previously announced, the Company is working on a Windows phone
app, which it now expects to launch within the next six months.
This will enable the Company to reach a wider audience. The Company
is also working on a next generation version of its web browser,
which is also expected to be launched over the next six months.
Additionally, the iOS app has been updated to be fully
compatible with iOS 8, which occurred on the same day that Apple
rolled out the new operating system. The Android version has also
been updated and has seen a step up in its usability. The Company
believes that these updates also contributed to a higher ARPU.
Outlook
The Company entered Q4 2014 with greater momentum and stronger
trading compared with Q3 2014. The continuing market volatility,
focused marketing strategy and ongoing improvement in the brand's
strength are expected to be significant contributors to the
Company's ability to gain new customers at an attractive cost. The
Company is also on target to add an extra 200 new instruments to
its portfolio, which will contribute to the attraction and
retention of customers. As a result, the Company now expects to
exceed current market expectations for both revenue and profit for
the year ending 31 December 2014.
Gal Haber, Chief Executive Officer of Plus500, said: "We are
very happy to report another quarter of significant growth where we
almost trebled our revenues and more than doubled our ARPU compared
with last year, as we saw an increase in market activity
globally.
"Looking ahead, we entered Q4 with increased momentum as the
initiatives we introduced in the previous quarter continue to bear
fruit. Our intuitive marketing technology continues to attract and
retain higher value customers, which gives us the confidence of
exceeding market expectations for the full year 2014."
Enquiries
Plus500
------------------------------------------------------------
Elad Even-Chen, VP Business Development +972 4 8189503
and Head of Investor Relations ir@Plus500.com
----------------------------------------- -----------------
Liberum
------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Bowman, Thomas Bective +44 20 3100 2222
----------------------------------------- -----------------
Luther Pendragon
------------------------------------------------------------
Harry Chathli, Claire Norbury, Alexis
Gore, Nick Corrin +44 20 7618 9100
----------------------------------------- -----------------
Conference Call
Gal Haber, CEO, and Elad Even-Chen, VP Business Development
& Head of Investor Relations, will be hosting a conference call
to investors and analysts at 10.00am BST today. The dial-in details
are as follows:
-- UK: 0808 237 0030
-- Israel: 037208677
-- US: 18669287517
-- International: +44 203 139 4830
-- Passcode: 45755301#
An audio webcast of the call can be heard live from 10.00am BST
today via the investor section of the Plus500 website:
http://www.plus500.com/Investors/Investors.aspx. A replay of the
webcast will also be available.
About Plus500
Plus500 has developed and operates an online trading platform
for retail customers to trade CFDs internationally over more than
2,100 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.
www.plus500.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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