CitisecOnline earnings drop to P257.89 million last year

MANILA, Philippines - Leading online stockbroker Citisec Online.com (COL) reported a slight drop in net earnings last year to P257.89 million, largely due to a 41-percent spike in expenses as well as the slowdown in its Hong Kong operations.

In a financial report submitted to the Philippine Stock Exchange, COL said revenues rose 5.7 percent to P490.22 million while expenses shot up to P187.88 million as a result of increased personnel costs and the amount of commissions and referral fees paid.

Trading-related revenues which comprised of commissions from customer transactions, interest on margin financing and gain on proprietary trading, went up five percent to P485 million.

COL’s Philippine operations doubled to P66.8 billion owing to the continued growth in client base along with the overall recovery of the Philippine markets.

Output from COL’s overseas unit in Hong Kong remained sluggish with value turnover falling 37.7 percent to P98.1 billion as the tightening policy of the Chinese government impacted negatively its economy. As a result, total commissions declined 7.5 percent to P371.3 million.

Interest earned from customers who availed of COL’s margin facility made up for the weak performance of its Hong Kong-based subsidiary, having posted an increase of 142.3 percent to P82.8 million.

In view of the strong performance of Philippine operations, it now accounts for 59 percent of total revenues compared to last year’s 31 percent.

The number of customer accounts jumped 75.5 percent to 6,629 new accounts, mostly from local operations, which is a clear indication of the increasing appeal of the parent firm’s product and service offerings.

COL said it expects to end the year slightly better than in 2010, driven primarily by its Philippine operations. It said it would continue to build its franchise as the leading online broker in the Philippines by tapping new market segments as part of a strategy to expand customer and asset base.

In Hong Kong, COL expects trading volumes to be flat as clients slowly rebuild their portfolios given the drop in equity values last year.