In the first quarter of 2022 XTB reported a consolidated net profit of PLN 252,6 million compared to PLN 89,1 million a year earlier. This is an increase of PLN 163,5 million. Consolidated revenues amounted to PLN 439,8 million (Q1 2021: PLN 186,7 million), and operating expenses amounted to PLN 131,0 million (Q1 2021: PLN 86,9 million). During the period, the average number of active clients increased by 46,3 thousand clients, which means and increase by 44,7% y/y.
Revenuesl
In the first quarter of 2022, XTB reported a record increase in revenues by 135,6% y/y, i.e. by PLN 253,1 million from PLN 186,7 million to PLN 439,8 million. The significant factors determining their level were high volatility in the financial and commodity markets and the constantly growing average number of active clients (increase by 44,7% y/y), combined with their high transactional activity expressed in the number of contracts concluded in lots. Consequently, trading in derivative instruments amounted to PLN 1 560,7 thousand lots (Q1 2021: 1 115,4 thousand lots), and the profitability per lot increased by 68,4%.
XTB has a solid foundation in the form of constantly growing client base and the number of active clients. In the first quarter of 2022, the Group acquired 55 333 new clients compared to 42 760 a quarter earlier, which means an increase of 29,4%. This is the effect of continuing the optimized sales and marketing strategy, bigger penetration of already existing markets, successive introduction of new products to the offer and expansion into new geographic markets. The number of active clients was record high in the analysed period. It increased from 127 174 to 149 726, i.e. by 17,7% q/q.
The ambition of the Management Board in 2022 is to acquire, on average, at least 40 thousand new clients quarterly. As a result of the implemented activities, the Group acquired a total of 55,3 thousand new clients in the first quarter of 2022, while in April 2022, 15,3 thousand new clients were acquired.
The priority of the Management Board is to further increase the client base leading to the strengthening of XTB’s market position in the world. These activities will be supported by a number of initiatives, including the new advertising campaign launched on February 14, 2022 with the participation of the new XTB brand ambassador – Joanna Jędrzejczyk – a titled martial arts competitor, the first Polish woman in the UFC organization and a champion in this organization, as well as a three-time world champion in Thai boxing.
XTB, thanks to the cooperation with Joanna Jędrzejczyk, started promoting the offered investment solutions, in particular, convincing that investing in various types of assets is available to everyone, using the tools provided that facilitate entry into the world of investments: through daily market analysis, as well as numerous educational materials.
Looking at XTB’s revenues in terms of the classes of instruments responsible for their creation, it can be seen that in the first quarter of 2022, CFDs based on index were in the lead. Their share in the structure of revenues on financial instruments reached 57,4% compared to 39,9% a year earlier. This is a consequence of high profitability on CFD instruments based on the US 100 and US 500 indexes, the German DAX stock index (DE30) or the Russian RUS 50 index. The second most profitable asset class was commodity CFDs. Their share in the structure of revenues in the 1st quarter of 2022 was 30,2% (Q1 2021: 53,8%). The most profitable instruments in this class were CFDs based on quotations of crude oil, gold and natural gas prices. Revenues on CFDs based on currencies accounted for 9,4% of all revenues, compared to 2,7% a year earlier, where the most profitable financial instruments in this class were based on the EURUSD currency pair.
XTB places great importance on the geographical diversification of revenues, consistently implementing the strategy of building a global brand. The country from which the Group derives more than 20% of revenues each time is Poland, with a share of 27,3% (Q1 2021 r.: 37,8%). Due to the overall share in the Group’s revenues, Poland was separated for presentation purposes as the largest market in terms of revenues in the Group. The Group breaks down its revenues by geographic area according to the country of the XTB office in which the client was acquired.
XTB puts also strong emphasis on diversification of segment revenues. Therefore the Group develops institutional activities under X Open Hub brand, under which it provides liquidity and technology to other financial institutions, including brokerage houses. Revenues from this segment are subject to significant fluctuations from period to period, analogically to the retail segment, which is typical for the business model adopted by the Group.
- – marketing costs, an increase by PLN 17,6 million resulting mainly from higher expenditure on online marketing campaigns;
- – costs of salaries and employee benefits, an increase by PLN 15,6 million mainly due to the increase in employment and provisions for variable remuneration components (bonuses);
- – commission costs, an increase by PLN 3,6 million resulting from higher amounts paid to payment service providers through which clients deposit their funds in transaction accounts;
- – other external services, an increase by PLN 2,6 million as a result of mainly higher expenditure on: (i) IT systems and licenses (increase by PLN 1,0 million y/y); (ii) legal and advisory services (increase by PLN 0,8 million y/y) and (iii) market data delivery services (increase by PLN 0,7 million y/y).
