SGX’s 1QFY2012 Profit Rises 18 Per cent to S$88 million

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) announced on Monday that it recorded a net profit of S$88 million in 1QFY2012 (ending 30 September 2011), up 18 per cent from S$74 million a year ago.

Overall revenue rose 12 per cent to S$178 million, compared with S$159 million in the previous corresponding period.

However, Listings revenue decreased by 3 per cent to S$9 million as fund raising activities slowed down due to unconducive market conditions spawned by ongoing macroeconomic concerns, it noted.

SGX said that while Securities and Issuer Services revenues were flat in the quarter, revenues from Derivatives, Depository, Member Services and Connectivity and Market Data grew by 27 per cent year-on-year to S$90 million in 1QFY2012.

The exchange’s securities daily trading value (SDAV) for the quarter was S$1.6 billion, on par with that of 1QFY2011 and about 9 per cent higher than the S$1.4 billion in the preceding quarter (4QFY2011).

Derivatives volume was 33 per cent higher at a record volume of 322,152 contracts a day.

“We are pleased with our results in this quarter. SGX had record derivatives volumes and continued to see growing interest for listings and new memberships,” Magnus Bocker, CEO of SGX, said.

“We successfully rolled out a number of new initiatives, including reduced minimum bid-ask spreads, all-day trading in our securities market and Reach – our new securities trading engine. We also revised our listing rules to improve corporate governance,” he added.

However, he said SGX remained cautious amid “uncertain global financial markets and continuing macroeconomic challenges in Europe and the US.”

For the period under review, SGX recorded S$150 million in IPO funds from six new listings, compared with S$82 million from eight new listings in 1QFY2011.

It also recorded S$1.1 billion in secondary funds raised, compared with S$1.4 billion in the previous corresponding period.

In addition, S$25 billion of debt capital programmes were listed through 54 issues.

SGX said EBITDA rose 15 per cent to S$115 million. Driven by increased revenues, its earnings per share was 18 per cent higher at S$0.082 and the ROE improved to 10.1 per cent.

Expenses were 10 per cent higher at S$75 million, mainly driven by technological expenses on increased depreciation of new platforms and the phased roll-out of the Reach initiative that began in April this year.

SGX cautioned that market activity in the near term could be adversely affected by the prevailing uncertainty and challenging global macroeconomic outlook.

But it said it would nonetheless continue with its current initiatives and investments.

SGX also announced that its Board of Directors has declared an interim dividend of S$0.04 per share, payable on 16 November 2011.