Plus500 backs FY expectations after 'strong' first half

Plus500 backed its full-year expectations on Monday after a "strong" first-half performance despite "difficult" market conditions.

In an update for the six months to 30 June, the company said revenue rose 8% on the same period a year earlier to $398.2m, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew 6% to $183.9m.

The group onboarded 56,759 new customers during the half, up from 50,449 in the same period a year earlier, and the base of active customers was 175,909, versus 175,762.

Plus500 said that as expected, its performance was achieved despite lower levels of activity across financial markets towards the end of the period, which were affected by the UEFA Euro 2024 Football Championship, a trend consistent with previous tournaments.

The company said revenue and EBITDA for the current financial year were set to be in line with current market expectations.

Chief executive David Zruia said: "Revenue and EBITDA increased meaningfully year-on-year, highlighting the inherent resiliency and strength of the group's differentiated business model. This underpins our continued focus on our stated strategy of expanding into new markets, developing new products and deepening relationships with our customers. We also delivered excellent operational progress across both our B2C (Retail) and B2B (Institutional) offerings to further reinforce our international competitive advantage and scale.

"Plus500 remains well positioned to capitalise on both short-term market conditions and the longer-term growth trends in its end markets. In the short-term, our increasingly diversified offering and intuitive trading platforms allow customers to access a wide variety of products, services and features across multiple markets. Over the medium-term, we will continue to invest in our strategic roadmap initiatives, which are enabled by our class-leading technology, deep customer engagements and robust financial position."