Aim-listed WorldSpreads gets a boost from overseas
AIM-LISTED spread betting firm WorldSpreads yesterday announced a jump in pre-tax profits to £2.66m for the year ended 31 March, easily beating the £0.22m it reported in 2009.
It was overseas clients that helped to drive performance. WorldSpreads, which has operations in Dublin, London, Cape Town and Kuala Lumpur, saw 41 per cent of trades executed outside of the UK, which generated 37 per cent of all trading profit. This helped push up earnings per share to €0.57, from €0.2 in 2009.
It has been a busy year for the firm, it sold its Irish spread betting business to focus on operations in London, as well as announcing a new partnership with Ladbrokes to be the exclusive provider of financial spread betting services to the bookmaker’s 4m online customers.
The strong bull market that lasted until May this year, coincided with a surge in new accounts. Over 4,000 accounts were opened in the last year and average trades for the day topped 6,000, a 41 per cent increase on 2009.
The company does not intend to pay a dividend. Instead it plans on beefing up administration expenses by £9m over the next year, in part to boost its international operations.