21 July 2016
Interim Management Statement
CMC Markets plc, (LSE: CMCX, "CMC" or the "Group"), a leading global provider of online retail trading, today issues its interim management statement for the period from 1 April to 30 June 2016.
The Group continues to make good progress against its strategic plan since the start of the year, with continuing strong levels of active clients and client applications demonstrating the strength of the brand and the platform. Compared to the same period last year active clients increased by 13%, with strong growth in client applications and approved accounts. However, the value of client trades was lower in the quarter particularly leading up to the EU referendum, resulting in a moderate decrease in revenue per active client compared to the same period last year.
During the quarter the group further demonstrated prudent risk management and proactively managed margins and as a result no losses were incurred through the high levels of volatility around the EU Referendum. The Group continues to maintain a strong regulatory capital and liquidity position.
As discussed at the time of the full year results, CMC anticipates no disruption to its business as a result of the referendum decision to leave the European Union. The costs of restructuring our offices to continue to service our European clients, should barriers be imposed on cross-border trading in the future, is not anticipated to make a material change to CMC's cost base. CMC's global headquarters will remain in London.
Progress continues to be made on each of the Group's five strategic growth initiatives.
1. Growth in established markets
The Group's three established markets have seen continuing levels of strong client acquisition. The recent Investment Trends survey in Germany has shown that the Group maintained its market leading position whilst also increasing share amongst high value clients. In Australia the Group increased its primary market share and remains the largest provider for high value clients with over a 30% market share.
2. Digital initiatives
The Group continues to see encouraging progress and results as the digital programme is rolled out. The new website has been launched in over half of the Group's markets, delivering an enhanced user experience and improvements in natural search rankings. Mobile channel marketing is continuing to drive strong levels of app downloads and applications. A new device responsive application form has improved conversion rates after an initial launch in one market and is now being rolled out across all markets over the coming months.
3. Geographic expansion
Performance continues in-line with expectations in the Austrian and Poland offices. In France and Italy performance also continues to improve.
4. New products/developments
The Group's binaries offering was successfully launched in April across CMC's international markets (excluding Singapore and Canada) with further expansion of the instrument range for binaries planned over the next twelve months. The Group remains focussed on further new product development and enhancing the award-winning Next Generation trading platform.
5. Institutional offering
CMC has made important progress with its institutional business and now has White Label, Grey Label and API connectivity available through its Next Generation offering.
Peter Cruddas, Chief Executive commented:
"The Group continues to make progress on its five pillars for growth and we continue to attract high-quality clients through our focus on retention, service and technology. In line with the wider market, volumes were lower leading into the EU referendum as clients traded in smaller sizes. However, clients trade volumes have subsequently increased and improvements in underlying client metrics are very positive.
Our full binary launch has been a success and I am very excited about the pipeline of new products. This has been a solid quarter building on the successful listing in February 2016."
Media enquiries
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Geoffrey Pelham-Lane/Ed Gascoigne-Pees/Jennifer Renwick Tel: 020 3757 4994
Notes to Editors
CMC Markets plc ("CMC"), whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CMCX, was established in 1989 and is now one of the world's leading online financial trading businesses. The company serves retail and institutional clients through regulated offices and branches in 14 countries, with a significant presence in the UK, Australia, Germany and Singapore. CMC Markets offers an award-winning, online and mobile trading platform, enabling clients to trade over 10,000 financial instruments across shares, indices, foreign currencies, commodities and treasuries through contracts for difference ("CFDs") and financial spread bets (in the UK and Ireland only). Clients can also place financial binary bets through Countdowns and, in Australia, access stockbroking services. More information is available at http://www.cmcmarkets.com/group
