Denmark-headquartered Saxo Bank Group published its financials for the first six months of 2022, reporting a drop in income and profits. The group generated DKK 2,145 million in income for the period, which is almost 12 percent lower than the previous year.
The net profit for the year-half tanked at more than 41 percent as it came in at DKK 302 million, compared to the previous year’s DKK 512 million.
“The results are not satisfactory and affected by difficult market conditions during the first half of 2022,” said Kim Fournais, the CEO and Founder of Saxo Bank. “Despite volatility in financial markets, clients’ trading activity was lower in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year.”
Also, the group pointed out that when it witnessed a decline in demand on its trading platforms, its cost levels remained unchanged. Further, the migration of BinckBank added cost and complexities.
Increasing Clients
However, on the positive side, the net inflow of new clients in the six months worked out positive. It ended the quarter with a total number of 874,000 clients, which is up from 790,000 in the same period in the previous year. But, the total client assets decreased year-over-year to DKK 591 billion from DKK 595 billion.
“The challenging market conditions with a negative trend in the global equity markets, high inflation and increasing interest rates underlines the importance of supporting our growing client base with inspiring and educational content – not least within risk management as we saw the dramatic end to an almost decade-long bull market,” said Fournais.
“We have for a long time communicated actively about the risk of much higher levels of inflation and the negative implications of the largest financial experiment – negative rates and quantitative easing – which is now coming to an end.”
Now, the company is focused on bringing out new products and finalizing its BinckBank migration. For the full financial year of 2022, the group is expected to generate a net profit of DKK 600 million.
