Argentex Group PLC (AIM: AGFX), the provider of foreign exchange services to institutions, corporates and high net worth individuals, today issues its interim results for the six-month period ended 30 September 2021.
Financial highlights
• Gross Foreign Exchange (“FX”) Turnover: £8.3bn (HY 21: £5.0bn) – up 67%
• Revenue: £15.7m (HY 21: £11.8m) – up 33%
• Underlying Operating Profit: £4.7m (HY 21: £3.7m)* – up 27%
• Underlying Operating Profit Margin: 29.9% (HY 21: 31.4%)
• Profit after tax: £3.3m (HY 21: £2.7m) – up 22%
• Highly cash generative, with 79% of revenue converting to cash in 3 months or less
• Earnings per share: 3.0p (basic); 3.2p (underlying) (HY 21: 2.4p (basic); 2.5p (underlying))
• Interim dividend: 0.75p per share
Harry Adams, CEO of Argentex commented: “We’re delighted to be reporting a record set of H1 results with strong revenue and profit growth driven by a continued surge in client trading activity and increasing demand for our services. As confidence returns in the aftermath of the pandemic, we’re delivering across all of our key performance metrics, enabled by our robust model and tireless approach to risk management. Our investment in high-quality people and evolving technology is integral to our market-leading service as evidenced by our growing client base in all trading environments. We remain confident in our future and long-term strategy to deliver on our ambitious growth plans, and we are well placed to capitalise on the significant opportunities that lie ahead.”
Operational highlights
Strong growth in clients and trading activity as post-pandemic confidence returns
o 271 new corporate clients traded during the period, up 28% (HY 21: 212)
o Total number of all corporate trading clients grew by 27% to 1,241 (HY 21: 981)
o Spot and forward spreads remain consistent with prior year
o Invested in additional headcount to meet growing client demand: 35% increase to an average of 69 FTE over the period (HY21:51)
Ongoing commitment to product innovation, investment in overseas expansion and technology
o Structured solutions performing well and in line with expectations (up 33% vs HY 21)
o New office in Amsterdam performing in line with expectations and delivering half-on-half revenue growth
o Strong and growing usage of the Company’s bespoke online platform (up 43% vs HY 21), underlining increasing demand for simplified and technology enabled access to products and services
Outlook
As the macro-economic environment continues to improve, the Company’s confidence in a sustained return to growth increases. The Group’s unswerving long-term strategic focus has technology at its core and it will continue to evolve its proposition, products and footprint to meet the growing needs of its client base and the changing way they interact with Argentex. This supports the positive long-term outlook for the business and in line with the Company’s distribution policy and to underline the Board’s confidence in its growth prospects, it is pleased to propose an interim dividend of 0.75p per share in line with the Company’s dividend policy to payout 30% of adjusted profit after tax for the year.
To read the full statement, please download the attachment here.
