Plus500 issues optimistic outlook for 2023 ahead of AGM
In a trading update ahead of its annual general meeting, Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS) said it continues to deliver a strong performance in the fiscal year 2023.
As outlined in the Q1 2023 filing, Plus500’s revenues between January and March were $208 million, up by almost two thirds from $127 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. The broker highlighted the progress it made against the group’s strategic roadmap including its marketing initiatives.
“Key metrics were ahead of Q4 2022. This performance has continued to be driven by the Group’s on-going investments in product innovation to attract and retain high value customers. In addition, the Group has made further significant progress against its strategic priorities,” the statement reads.
Plus500 reported its Q1 revenue was down 23 percent YoY from $271 million a year earlier. At the bottom line, the spread betting and CFDs broker told investors that it earned $101 million in Q1 2023’s EBITDA, which was also lower by 37 percent from $161 million in Q1 2022. Compared to the previous quarter, the figure shot up by 116 percent when weighed against $46.7 million in the three months thought December 2022.
Plus500 also saw its Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) improving to $1,517, up from $968 in Q4 2022, or 57 percent higher quarter-over-quarter. The figure was slightly down from $1,534 in the year prior. Plus500 attributed the better AUAC result to the proportion of high value customers, which also provides potential for increased future revenues.
In terms of the Average User Acquisition Cost (AUAC), Plus500 reported a marginal decrease as the onboarding costs was lower by 2.3 percent year-over-year to $1,416 from $1,381 in Q1 2022.
In an update for the period ended March 31, the company highlighted “consistent strength” in customer income and said this supported a strong revenue performance in the quarter just ended.
Notably, Plus500 continued to add more active accounts, saying that they had seen increased levels of trading activity in the first quarter, and that revenue from customer income had been strong.
However, the group’s client on-boarding activity decelerated from a year earlier with the number of new customers falling by 16 percent to 28,201 compared to 33,740 reported back in Q1 2022. But on a quarter-over-quarter scale, Plus500 had still seen healthy numbers of new customers sign up when compared against 25,527 in the fourth quarter.
Additionally, the number of active clients decreased between January and March to 137,053, down 22 percent against 176,642 over the same period in 2022.
According to its filing with the stock exchange: “The Board remains confident about the Group’s prospects and its ability to execute against several market opportunities whilst continuing to make on-going investments to develop Plus500’s position as a global multi-asset fintech group. In particular, the Group is focused on delivering further organic investments in technology, marketing and people, as well as actively targeting additional acquisitions, in order to deliver sustainable growth over the medium to long term. The Board continues to expect that Plus500’s performance will be in line with current market expectations.”
