LMAX Exchange Reports Record Growth for 2017, EBITDA Tops £8.8 million

David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Exchange
David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Exchange

LMAX Exchange, the London-based provider of the multilateral trading facility for forex industry has reported its annual result for fiscal 2017. The firm reported record growth boosted by strong demand from institutional clients that drove the trading volumes higher. The firm reported a record 58 percent increase in institutional volume year-on-year during 2017.

LMAX Exchange gross profit during the period came in at £25.4 million ($34.4 million) which is 22 percent higher year-on-year. The company’s New York and Tokyo facilities witnessed massive gains, in which trades executed via NY4 matching engine increased 5 times and TY3 witnessed a three-fold rise in activity. The company posted an EBITDA of £8.8 million ($12.2 million) which is 58 percent higher when compared to previous year (2016). 

In the past two years (2015-17), the company has witnessed strong growth results with 151 percent increase in EBITDA annually, gross profit at about 28 percent annually and volumes increased by 20 percent annually. Strengthening its international footprints, the company opened an institutional sales hub in Singapore last year and through multiple senior level appointments in the Asia Pacific and North America regions. The company has now matching engines in all the major Fx centers around the world. During the year, LMAX Exchange also separated its brokerage unit to form a newly FCA regulated entity LMAX Global, to comply with MiFID II regulations and was successfully completed in December 2017.

Commenting on the results, CEO of LMAX Exchange, David Mercer, said: 

“Our results demonstrate the increasing appeal of order-driven firm liquidity for trading institutions and the growing focus on precision and certainty of execution. LMAX Exchange has built a leading institutional exchange for FX trading and we are proud to count over 300 large funds and brokers in our global institutional client base, and all major global banks and non-banks among our 25 liquidity providers.”

He added: “As an established, independent business, gaining significant traction year on year, we are in an exceptionally good position to drive further growth in client funds and trading volumes. We will continue to fulfil our ambition of capturing a larger share of the institutional market as we propagate the exchange model globally.”

While commenting on the future growth of the company, he said: “The Company expects strong revenue growth to continue and its market share to increase further in 2018. We are witnessing continued focus on governance and regulatory changes driving more FX trading onto regulated exchanges like LMAX Exchange. These developments are commensurate with the Company’s vision of transforming global FX trading into a fairer and more transparent marketplace.”