Brokerage house XTB Ltd UK (formerly known as X Open Hub Ltd) released year ended Dec 31st 2015 financial statements which shows the UK office of the brokerage XTB Group swung to a profit of £268k on £4.6m in revenues compared to 2014 where revenue stood at £970k and the company absorbed a loss of £686k. Parent company X-Trade Brokers Dom Maklerski S.A. with its subsidiaries, is an international provider of trading and investment products.
The company stated its focus for the UK office in 2015 was on growing the retail trading business, this was accomplished through an increase in marketing spend and promotions. The retail growth was achieved as planned. However, the company said the institutional business dropped off in 2015 due to market conditions and and lack of business activity, but expects to rebound in 2016 (see below):
XTB stated for 2016 it plans to optimize its digital marketing while at the same time repositioning their core proposition to higher value messaging such as powerful trading platforms, expert client education and risk management tools.
Highlights:
- Added staff members in sales, marketing and operations.
- In 2016, the institutional arm plans to offer more liquidity rather than the provision of the company’s trading technology.
- Introduced new website in 2015, improved client acceptance processes.
- Avg number of monthly employees were 18 in 2015 (£1.46m staff cost) vs. 13 employees in 2014 (£844k).
A significant increase in client deposits held by the UK brokerage branch.
The numbers here are for the UK office only, as a group XTB operates 13 offices globally within: France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Latin America (Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Argentina), Poland, Germany, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and China.
Back in May and led by J.P. Morgan, XTB successfully completed an IPO at a valuation of $349 million on the Warsaw Exchange, a historic IPO for an FX broker and becoming the first to do so in Poland.