Compagnie Financière Tradition reports lackluster financial results for 2021
Switzerland-based interdealer broker Compagnie Financière Tradition today reported lower-than-expected earnings for the first half of 2021, having made CHF 452.0 million in revenues compared to CHF 512.8 million in the prior year semester.
At current exchange rates, CFT’s revenue was down 11.9 percent, while on a constant basis, consolidated revenue decreased 9.9 percent from a year earlier.
Taking a quarterly perspective, the group posted CHF 213.3 million in revenue for the three months through June compared with CHF 235.5 million in the second quarter. This figure is down 9.0 percent at constant exchange rates.
Compagnie Financière Tradition shared a few details about its operational metrics, but the company said its performance in the first half of 2021 should be put into perspective with “the exceptional volume of activity in the same period last year, particularly in March and to a lesser extent in April.”
2020 has been the busiest trading year on record, with almost all big brokers and major exchanges sensing the intensity of the huge turnover that was only seen in the depths of the financial crisis in October 2008.
But following the boom in activity seen at major trading venues throughout the previous year, many platforms turned to suffer lackluster turnover, and some were even in a sea of red in 2021.
“Indeed, the gradual health crisis resulting from COVID-19 had caused a very high volatility in the financial markets positively impacting the Group’s revenue. Thus, the context of normalization of activities that we experience with the decrease in the Group’s revenue will have a negative impact on the expected half-year results which should notably return to the level of the first semester 2019. Finally, the level of activity for the month of July shows a slight increase compared to the same period last year,” the company said.
Compagnie Financiere Tradition acts as a marketplace and intermediary that facilitates transactions between financial institutions and traders in the capital markets. The multi-asset interdealer broker is active in many cash and derivative markets, including interest rate, FX, equities bonds and commodity-related markets. CFT operates across both exchange-traded and over-the-counter markets in approximately 30 countries worldwide.
Compagnie Financière Tradition is listed on the Swiss SIX under ticker CFT and owns Japanese foreign exchange broking giant Gaitame.
