XTB has just published its preliminary financial results for the first half of 2023. In the environment of lower volatility in the financial and commodity markets in Q2 2023, the company reported EUR 91.3 mn of net profit in H1 2023. Intense marketing activities resulted in a record high number of new clients as well as their increased investment activity.
In the first half of 2023, XTB generated a net profit of EUR 91.3 mm compared to EUR 103.3 mn a year before (decrease by 11.6%). Operating revenues in the first half of 2023 amounted to EUR 177.5 mn compared to EUR 180.1 mn in H1 2022 (decrease by 1.4%) with operating costs at the level of EUR 74.1 mn (H1 2022: EUR 57.7 mn).
A record-breaking number of new clients and their increasing investment activity
XTB has a solid foundation in the form of a constantly growing client base and the number of active clients. In the first half of 2023, the company recorded another record in this area by acquiring 167.2 thousand clients compared to 101.0 thousand a year earlier, an increase of 65,5%. Analogous to the number of new clients, the number of active clients was also a record. This rose by 44.4% from 190.1 thousand in H1 2022 to 274.5 thousand at the end of H1 2023.
Increased transactional activity of XTB clients is expressed in the number of CFD contracts concluded in lots. In H1 2023, trading in derivatives amounted to 3.51 mn lots, an increase by 18.5% from 3.05 mn lots in H1 2022. The profitability per lot amounted to EUR 49 vs. EUR 59 in H1 2022.
“Growing our customer base remains our priority and the H1 financial results prove that we’re able to achieve our goals even when the volatility in the financial and commodity markets is lower and the interest in investing decreases. We’re strengthening our market position in Poland and key global markets and the investment in technology and new products are bringing the expected results. Thanks to our diverse offer, we’re attracting new groups of customers, who are starting their investment journey. Thanks to fractional shares, which we had already launched on seven European markets, our clients have more flexibility when building their diverse portfolios based on shares and ETFs.” – says Paweł Szejko, XTB board member.
Revenue structure by instrument classes
Looking at XTB’s revenues in terms of the classes of instruments responsible for their creation, it can be seen that CFDs based on indices led in the first half of 2023. Their share in the structure of revenues on financial instruments reached 51,9%. This is a consequence of the high profitability on CFDs instruments based on the US 100 index, the German DAX stock index (DE30) or US 500 index. The second most profitable asset was CFD instruments based on commodities.Their share in the revenue structure in the first half of 2023 was 36,5%.
The most profitable instruments in this class were CFDs based on natural gas and gold quotation. Revenues on CFDs instruments based on currencies accounted for 9,6% of total revenues, where the most profitable financial instruments in this class were those based on the USDJPY and EURUSD currency pair.
Operating costs
The operating costs in the first half of 2023 amounted to EUR 74.1 mm and were by EUR 16.4 mm higher than in the corresponding period of the previous year (EUR 57.7 mm in the first half of 2022). The most important changes (increase by EUR 7.0 mn) were recorded in costs of remuneration and employee benefits resulting from dynamic development of the company and thus the increase in employment. Marketing costs increased by EUR 6.9 mn, mainly due to higher expenditure on online marketing campaigns.
Development of IT solutions
In the first half of 2023, XTB continued to work on the development of highly innovative, comprehensive solutions in the field of online investments in financial instruments. This included, among others, technologies related to the development of XTB’s proprietary trading systems, effective execution of orders and efficient onboarding. – As part of our business strategy, we’re focusing on the development of technologies applied in our proprietary investment platform, the mobile app as well as new products. This results in the structure of our employee base. Currently, ca. 40% of our staff in Warsaw’s headquarters are programmers and IT developers, working on building XTB’s competitive position on the global market – comments Paweł Szejko.