Trading technology company Fidessa has reported its interim results for H1 2011, with the strongest growth coming in US sales revenues.
The firm's total revenue increased from £128.5 million in H1 2010 to £137.0 million in the first half of 2011, an increase of 9% at constant currencies.
Results varied by region, with the highest increase seen in North America (9%), followed by Asia at 7% and Europe at 5%. Chris Aspinwall, chief executive at Fidessa, noted that the earthquake in Japan earlier this year had a negative impact on revenue growth in Asia of
£1.7 million.
In terms of business lines, Fidessa earned £70 million from sell-side trading products, £7 million from buy-side trading systems, £24 million from connectivity and £12 million from market data products. Some 14 clients signed to Fidessa's buy-side solutions during the period. Many of the sales consisted of software as a service execution solutions, designed to reduce costs for firms by removing the need to invest in hardware and maintenance. New brokers were also added to the company's global network including in China and the Middle East.
Fidessa noted that concerns about increased compliance regulation are driving some buy-side firms to increase their technology spend; however given adverse market conditions – including the unexpectedly low volume of trading seen in equity markets in H1 2011 – the firm added that cost control is a strong focus with many, reducing the uptake of large investment management deployments. The company plans to gain from focusing on solutions that can solve specific problems in a cost effective way, especially in compliance and market execution.