Plus500 first half 2013 results impress everyone except the stock market

In its first financial report since its IPO in July, Plus500 sees its shares barely react, trading up 0.6%.

CFD broker Plus500 has reported its first financial results as a public company, and they were (in our view) quite impressive. Virtually everything at Plus500 — Revenues, EBITDA, Net Income, Revenue-per-Client (ARPU) — showed a large increase over 1H and 2H last year.

Specifically, for the first half of 2013 Plus500 saw:

  • Revenues up 47% to $44.7 million (H1 2012: $30.3 million),
  • EBITDA up 65% to $21.9 million (H1 2012: $13.3 million),
  • EBITDA margin up 12% to 49% (H1 2012: 44%),
  • Net profit up 59% to $15.4 million (H1 2012: $9.7 million),
  • Revenue per client (ARPU) up 24% to $898 (H1 2012: $722).

So why didn’t Plus500’s share price jump?

First of all, we should point out that in the one month since its IPO Plus500 had actually traded quite well, up 8% from its IPO price. But beyond the share price already having moved up, clearly the stock market was not surprised by Plus500’s nice results — and that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

When Plus500 went off to meet investors on its IPO roadshow in mid July, two weeks after quarter-end, management clearly knew what the first half results would be. And while the 1H results weren’t included in Plus500’s IPO prospectus, investors clearly got the message that Q1 and Q2 went very well. That certainly also helps explain the runup in Plus500’s share price in the month since it went public, absent any other news out there on the company.

To see the complete press release on Plus500’s first half 2013 results click here.

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