Citisec profit up 27% in first quarter

MANILA, Philippines -  CitisecOnline.com Inc., (COL) a leading online stockbroker, reported a 27- percent increase in its net income for the first quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2010, driven predominantly by commissions generated from customer activity.

Consolidated revenues hit P152 million or 46 percent higher than the same period last year, the company said in a statement.

COL president and chief executive officer Dino Bate attributed increased customer activity to the improved outlook of the economy that is currently benefiting from investment-led economic growth and an extremely low interest rate environment.

The company’s Philippine operations continued to increase its contribution to overall revenues, COL also said.

Philippine operations now comprise 81 percent of total revenues versus their wholly-owned subsidiary, CitisecOnline.com HK Ltd.

“We continue to see the substantial development and growth in our Philippine operations as shown by our customer assets doubled year-on-year to over P12 billion from P5.7 billion,” Bate said.

Customer base, meanwhile, grew by 20 percent and hit the 18,000-mark during the period. Bate said this is due to a number of referrals from customers.

“We are very happy to see our own customers bring in their friends and family to invest with us and we see this as a good measure of their satisfaction with our products and services. Our seminars continue filled with a good mix of investors eager to learn about the basics of stock market investing as well as how to manage risk and maximize profits through timing or cost averaging,” said Juanis Barredo, who heads up the COL Investor Seminar Series.

COL has a 20-percent market share in the transactions at the Philippine Stock Exchange. Furthermore, COL has also strengthened its standing as it now ranks into the top nine in terms of value turnover, doubling its market share in terms of value turnover to over four percent from less than two percent in the first quarter of the year.

“Our efforts in focusing on our customers by providing them the best value of products and service offerings have been paying off. In 2011, we will be launching several new online tools and products that will further improve their trading experience and increase the accessibility to market information to make better informed investment decisions,” Bate said.