Denmark based Europe’s biggest multi-asset brokerage group, Saxo Bank A/S has released its financial results for 2017, posting marginal growth in revenue and improved profitability compared to 2016. The group’s operating income during the year came in at €402 million (USD $501 million), a marginal increase of 3 percent compared to 2016.
The group’s EBITDA totaled €125 million during the year, up from €113.5 million in 2016. The net profits for the group posted a healthy growth of 33 percent at €53.9 million aided by increased clients numbers in both retail and institutional segments. Though, the business performance in the second half of the year slowed down considerably by 6 percent drop in revenue compared to first half of 2017.
Other operating metrics for the company witnessed healthy growth with client collateral deposit continued to rise reaching €13.9 billion at the end of fiscal and capital adequacy ratio of the group also strengthened reaching 22.7 percent compared to 19.5 percent at the end of 2016.
Commenting the financial results Kim Fournais, CEO and co-founder of Saxo Bank said:
“The 2017 results are further evidence of the strength of Saxo Bank’s scalable business model as a fintech and regtech specialist focused on multi-asset trading and investment for direct clients as well as delivering ‘Banking-as-a-Service’ to wholesale clients. Despite the low market volatility, Saxo has attracted record numbers of new direct and wholesale clients.”
“A new high in client collateral deposits is a further testament to Saxo Bank’s multi-asset offering which enables clients to trade in all market cycles. With a strong capital base, we will continue to invest in and improve our client experience and technology to enable us to stay at the forefront of client-focused digitisation.”
He added:“The results confirm that Saxo Bank is on the right path and we will continue to prioritise the ongoing development of best in class technology to ensure our clients and partners benefit from the best trading experience with regards to product, platform, price and service.”
The group has witnessed a lot of management and operational level changes during the year and is also the first result for the group after it has announced the sale of its subsidiary Saxo Privatbank to Danish financial services group, Alm. Brand Bank earlier this month. It has also entered a white label partnership with Alm, to allow their clients to invest in stocks, bonds, ETFs and mutual fund using Saxo’s SaxoTraderGO platform.
Last week, Board Chairman, Lone Fonss Schroder made her exit from the group after almost five years in the position. The group has appointed Henrik Normann, one of its Board member and President and CEO of Nordic Investment Bank as Board Chairman effective immediately.
