The strength of Sterling wiped out revenue gains at trading group Fidessa in 2014, resulting in a £4 million drop in revenue, compared to the previous year, it announced today.
The group said revenue for 2014 stood at £275 million, down from the £279 million declared at full year 2013, despite the fact that revenue would have increased by 3% if currency exchange rates were the same as last year.
Adjusted operating profit dropped 5% from £41.6 million in 2013 to £39.5 million in 2014, after gains from a property sale and ‘acquired intangibles’ were stripped out.
Chris Aspinwall, chief executive of Fidessa, said in a statement to investors: “Whilst the business saw a return to underlying growth, the exceptional strength of Sterling during the year, as highlighted in the interim results, more than offset this growth and affected the reported numbers.
“This effect is, however, believed to be transient and is not expected to continue in 2015. We expect that we will see a gradual increase in our growth rate from the level achieved in 2014 and this is supported by the current sales pipeline.”
Fidessa saw considerable growth in recurring revenues in its sell-side derivatives business, which nearly doubled and now accounts for around 7% of recurring revenue, compared to just 4% in 2013.
However, revenue from both buy-side and sell-side equities operations were down 1% each.
The group also said it was impacted once again in 2014 by restructuring projects at its customers which had led to closures and consolidation of operations with some clients.
It added that, while it expected further consolidations and restructurings to occur within the client base, there would likely be fewer in 2015.