Nasdaq has published its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2018 this Wednesday. Overall, the Exchange operator reported a solid quarter and an uptick in revenues.
Taking a look first at the fourth quarter results, net revenues for the period were $645 million. This is an increase of 2 percent when measured against the same period of the previous year.
Contributing to this figure is 11 percent organic growth which was partially offset by a reduction of 7 percent due to the net impact of the divestiture and acquisition of businesses. Furthermore, revenues were also hampered by a 2 percent reduction from changes in foreign exchange rates.
During the fourth quarter, Nasdaq completed its acquisition of Quandl, a provider of alternative and core data. The sum of the deal was not disclosed and was completed in December of last year.
Making up three percent of total revenues, fixed income and commodities trading and clearing revenues came in at $19 million for the fourth quarter of 2018. On an annual basis, this is a loss of $2 million.
According to the results, this decline is mostly due to a fall in US fixed income revenues and Nordic commodities products. However, the decline was partially offset by higher net revenues at NFX.
For the whole of 2018, net revenues were $2.5 billion. Similar to the fourth quarter, this is also up on a yearly comparison by 5 percent. In this case, organic growth contributed 8 percent.
Adena Friedman, the CEO of Nasdaq
Commenting on the results, Adena Friedman, the President and CEO of Nasdaq said: “We are pleased by our progress this year, especially the strong organic revenue growth we achieved across all our business segments. Importantly, our strategic direction coupled with a renewed client focus, has resulted in materially higher client engagement across all of our businesses.”
Nasdaq in 2019
The theme of Nasdaq for 2019 appears to be expansion. Already this year, Nasdaq completed its public cash offer to acquire the shares of Swedish fintech provider Cinnober. The deal helps to strengthen Nasdaq’s operations as an infrastructure provider.
Furthermore, this morning, Nasdaq announced that its indirect subsidiary Nasdaq AB would make a public offer in February to acquire all of the issued shares of Oslo Børs VPS Holding ASA, challenging Euronext’s previous offer.
“As we begin 2019, we are continuing to execute on our strategy, first with the pivot to maximize opportunities as a technology and Analytics provider through our acquisitions of Cinnober and Quandl and second by enhancing our marketplace core through our offer to combine Oslo Børs VPS’ leading Norwegian exchange and depository capabilities with our leading Nordic marketplace complex. We believe these strategic acquisitions will be additive to our organic growth efforts and important drivers of the value we deliver to our clients and shareholders,” added Friedman.
