Fading trading boom sends Admirals’ revenue, profit sharply down
FX brokerage firm Admirals (formerly Admiral Markets) has reported its interim financial results for the twelve months ending December 2021, which saw mixed results across key components of its business.
Compared to a period of strong growth in 2020, Admirals had seen noticeable drops in its financial figures in 2021. More specifically, Admirals disclosed a net operating revenue of €35.7 million. The figure is down by nearly 43 percent year-over-year from €62 million in 2020.
Also, Admiral Markets saw its operating expenses tick up in the 2021, after seeing a figure of €24.2 million – this was up 6 percent year-over-year from €22.9 million in 2020. However, personnel expenses were lower to €11 million from €16 million a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the bottom line figure shows that Admirals barely broke even in the year just ended. The company reported a net profit at €0.1 million in the 12 months through December 2021, compared with a net profit of €20.7 million it earned in the year prior.
“We have kept our costs at 2020’s level while making significant investments in development and infrastructure. We introduced a wide range of new services and products in our portfolio, keeping pace with customer interest in cryptocurrency. These steps, and more, have increased our global presence in the FinTech sector,” said Sergei Bogatenkov, CEO of Admirals.
Meanwhile, the value of trades went down 16 percent to €842 billion comparing to €998 billion in 2020, but was up 43 percent compared to 2019.
Despite its weak financials, Admiral Markets said 2021 has been “an excellent kick-off” for the results they expect to achieve in the next few years. This was reflected in onboarding more clients. Specifically, the company reported the number of new clients at 123,714, up 32 percent from it was in 2020 and 283 percent more than the same period of 2019.
Estonia hits Admirals with €20,000 fine
Number of active clients was also up 2 percent to 49,080 clients comparing to the previous year and also doubled compared to same period 2019 ( 2020: 48,341, 2019: 24,148 active clients)
According to Sergei Bogatenkov, “the company has experienced success in its journey to become a financial centre. And our excellent performance during turbulent times, producing unique results and, most importantly, seeing the relevance of our vision, long-term goals, and strategic plan was undeniable. I am grateful to our global team, partners and investors, with whom we will continue to shake up the financial world and stand up for an innovative, unified, and personal experience in finance.”
Admirals is licensed by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). The regulatory approvals allow the brokerage firm to offer a set of financial services and also approved to provide cross-border services across the EU / EEA under European passport rights.
Last week, the Estonia’s top financial markets supervisor fined Admirals €20,000 for failures in its regulatory reporting governance. The company said the enforcement action resolves the Finantsinspektsioon’s concerns about errors in the broker’s mandatory regulatory reporting of transactions.
