ISE sees 14% fall in pre-tax profits as revenues increase

Pre-tax profits at the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) declined by €1 million or 14 per cent last year after jumping 13 per cent in 2013.

The ISE announced a pre-tax profit of €6.2 million for 2014 compared with €7.2 million a year earlier. Operating profits declined slightly from €6.3 million to €5.8 million.

The exchange reported a strong performance overall as its equity trading and debt listing markets reached record levels.

Revenues rose 9 per cent in the year to €24.9 million from €22.9 million, driven primarily by continued strong growth from the ISE’s primary markets business, where revenues rose 12 per cent to €17.2 million. The primary markets business, which relates to international debt, fund and equity listings, now accounts for 69% per cent of total ISE revenues.

Its traded markets business, which represents a wide range of revenues from equity and Government bond transaction income, market data sales, infrastructure and trading membership fees, accounted for 31 per cent of ISE revenues last year. Income was up 3 per cent on the prior year at €7.7 million.

Operating costs rose from €16 million to €19 million, which the ISE attributed to investment in a number of significant strategic projects including the development of a new digital strategy, the launch of a new website and the completion of the group’s corporate restructuring last April.

ISE said the rise in operating costs also reflected rising staffing costs and additional costs associated with increased volumes across the ISE’s listing and trading services.

At the end of December the ISE had over 32,000 securities from 4,100 issuers in 81 countries listing their securities on its four international markets.

Chief executive Deirdre Somers said initial public offerings (IPOs) remains strong with three IPOs raising €484 million last year with a further €800 million raised by market entrants during the first half of 2015.

“We have strengthened our status as the leading European exchange for fixed income and funds and reinforced our position as the centre of liquidity for Irish equities. Companies choosing to list on our markets come from all across Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East. We grew revenues strongly and controlled costs tightly. We also completed some strategic projects during 2014 including our successful transition to a public limited company in April and the launch of our new website in September,” said Ms Somers.

“We are confident of our ability to expand our Irish and international businesses in the coming years. Our €10 million investment plan for our headquarters announced last month and the extensive recruitment programme we carried out in late 2014 which has increased staff numbers by over 10 per cent are key to facilitating this growth,” she added.