O
nline buying and selling enterprise Plus500 has revealed a hunch in gross sales and earnings within the face of diminished buying and selling exercise.
Nevertheless, the London-listed agency cheered “further progress” towards its present technique and revealed a 120 million US greenback (£94.5 million) pay out for buyers.
It stated it deliberate at hand round 60 million {dollars} (£47.2 million) straight to shareholders via a dividend pay-out in addition to launch a share buyback programme value one other 60 million {dollars}.
The investor pay-outs got here regardless of weaker buying and selling within the face of “quieter market conditions”.
Trading platforms have witnessed a major slowdown towards the identical interval final yr, when exercise was buoyed by volatility within the monetary markets following the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As a consequence, Plus500 informed buyers on Monday that it posted revenues of 368.5 million US {dollars} (£290.4 million) for the half-year to June 30, down 28% towards the identical interval final yr.
Meanwhile, earnings earlier than curiosity, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) declined by 43% to 174.1 million {dollars} (£137.2 million) for the interval.
David Zruia, chief government officer of Plus500, stated: “In the first half of the year, we executed on our strategy to produce a strong performance, thanks to the power of Plus500’s market-leading proprietary technology and our consistent ability to attract and retain higher value customers over the long term.
“Our increasingly diversified revenue streams, broadened product offering, deep customer relationships and the structural growth drivers in our end markets, mean we are able to deliver both growth and attractive shareholder returns.
“With continued operational and financial momentum being achieved, we also made substantial progress in delivering against our strategic priorities, particularly in harnessing the attractive growth opportunities in the US futures market and obtaining new regulatory licences in the high growth UAE market and very recently in the Bahamas.”
Shares in Plus 500 had been greater than 5% increased after the markets opened on Monday.