CitisecOnline profit rises nearly 7 times in H1

Online stockbrokerage house CitisecOnline.com posted a net profit of P59.85 million in the first half this year, almost seven times the P8.71 million earned the previous year, largely driven by higher commissions from clients’ trading activities.

In a financial report filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange, CitisecOnline said revenues grew 246 percent to P117.31 million from only P33.87 million as commissions generated from clients’ trades surged rose nearly four-fold to P89.46 million.

CitisecOnline said interest, mostly coming from margin financing, jumped 135.5 percent to P20.77 million from P8.82 million, while gain on financial assets amounted to P5.535 million compared with P1.57 million a year ago.

Expenses, on the other hand, increased 76 percent to P46.46 million as personnel costs grew by P10.3 million due to the across-the-board salary adjustments made to realign employees’ pay to market, and the hiring of additional staff to complement the parent company’s growing operational requirements.

CitisecOnline president and chief executive officer Conrado Bate said the number of customer accounts grew to 3,166 as of end-June 2007 compared with only 622 the same period a year ago. Customers’ net equity jumped to P2.4 billion from a measly P503.7 million.

“Our brand-building efforts, investor education campaigns and product launches for our Philippine operations have propelled us to become the leading online brokerage in the country. It is encouraging to note that word-of-mouth advertising generated majority of our accounts,” Bate said.

As of end-June this year, CitisecOnline had total assets of P1.14 billion, an increase of 39.7 percent, against liabilities of P591 million.

CitisecOnline has been actively trading on the Philippine Stock Exchange since 2001, providing stockbrokerage services through Internet technology.

The company has gained status for its proficiency in equity analysis and brokerage services with the management team comprising professionals in the financial and information technology companies as well as entrepreneurs with decades of experience in the stockbrokerage industry.

The company’s vision is to be the leading online financial services provider in Asia, giving customers access to global markets and products. It hopes to achieve this by empowering retail customers with online tools and market information to help them make well-informed investment decisions and achieve financial independence. CitisecOnline owns CitisecOnline.com Hong Kong Ltd, a member of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which is currently developing an online platform for the Hong Kong and China markets.