Saxo Bank tops 790K clients as revenue grows to $376 million
Copenhagen-based broker, Saxo Bank reported surging half-year revenues as Covid-19 remains a key trigger for customers’ trading activity, but it still earned less money compared to a year earlier.
The FX bank has announced on Friday its financial results for the six months ending June 30, 2021. The multi-asset group marked mild growth in revenues, which came in at DKK 2.4 billion ($376 million), up 5 percent from DKK 2.3 billion for the same period last year.
As for the bottom-line metrics, Saxo Bank disclosed a net profit of DKK 512 million ($80.3 million), slightly down by 3 percent from DKK 529 million in the Jan-Jun period of 2020.
Furthermore, Saxo Bank won more clients with total active accounts crossing 790,000 for the first time in the company’s 29-year history. Having onboarded more than 159,000 new accounts in the first half, total clients’ assets under custody grew to DKK 595 billion as of 30 June 2021.
That was another record-breaking milestone for the Danish broker, which took 25 years to reach the DKK 100 billion mark and then only 4 years to add an additional DKK 500 billion in client assets.
Meanwhile, operating costs increased 10 percent over a yearly basis, to DKK 1.5 billion compared to DKK 1.3 billion in the first half of 2020. Saxo Bank attributed this increase in staff costs and administrative expenses to investments in its strategic initiatives.
Commenting on the results, Kim Fournais, CEO and founder of Saxo Bank, said: “We are building a prudent financial institution that is part of the solutions needed in the future and we remain committed to constantly improving the SaxoExperience, providing our clients with timely, relevant, and engaging content when using our platforms. At Saxo Bank, we firmly believe it will be a force for good not only for society and the economy, but for the many people who are now better equipped to fulfill their financial aspirations while making an impact by investing based on their beliefs and values.”
Saxo Bank added that it expects to complete integration with Dutch lender BinckBank, which it acquired in 2019, before the end of 2021.
The two companies have worked on the integration of their technology infrastructure over the last two years. They also plan to launch additional products and services to better compete in light of fierce competition in the online trading and investment sector.
Saxo said that their similar geographic footprint, products and customer bases meant the merger made sense and would also drive efficiencies.
Finally, the brokerage firm issued updated guidance for the third and fourth quarters. Saxo Bank warned a slowdown in market volatility and trading activity would hit revenues in the second half of 2021.
However, the broker upgrades its forecasts for the whole year and now expects to end 2021 with a net profit in the range of DKK 650 – 800 million, up from DKK 500 – 800 million it previously stated.
