Aquis Exchange posts rise in revenues and market share
Pan-European share trading platform Aquis Exchange grew both its revenue and its market share over the last year as it pressed ahead with plans to disrupt the initial public offering (IPO) market.
Revenues jumped 165 per cent to £3.4m in the 12 months to the end of June 2019.
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The firm’s market share reached 4.8 per cent in the second quarter of this year, rising from 3.8 per cent in the final three months of 2018.
Losses on earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) narrowed year-on-year from £1.6m to £0.16m.
Earlier this summer Aquis snapped up Nex Exchange for a nominal £1, in additional to roughly £2.7m to cover working capital levels, as part of a move to disrupt Europe’s IPO market.
Nex, which is one of four primary equity listings venues based in London, was offloaded by CME Group, the world’s largest futures exchange, a year after Aquis floated on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (Aim).
Aquis launched in 2012 as a competitor to exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange and Cboe Europe.
Traders are charged based on message traffic and aggressive traders are banned from using the exchange.
Alasdair Haynes, the chief executive of Aquis and an exchange veteran, told City A.M.: “Even with losses we’re expecting out of Nex, we are still looking towards profitability in 2020.”
He added: “Market conditions are very hard but to be able to grow revenues proves the model. We’re trying to radically change the IPO process – there hasn’t ever really been any competition in this space.”
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Liberum analysts said in a note this morning that they see “every reason for continued progress to a 10 per cent market share”.
The broker added: “More members have joined the exchange and are trading at higher volumes, so moving up pricing tiers. The need for best execution and low toxicity, further impelled by regulation, continues to drive business growth.”