A strong performance from post-trade derivatives business lines and the Fermat risk management unit helped overcome a slowdown in front office sales at Paris-based trading systems firm GL Trade in 2005.
GL Trade is reporting a turnover of €179.2M for 2005 - an increase of 19.4% compared to the previous financial year. On a comparable consolidation basis, the 2004-2005 organic growth rate was 5.2%, including the full year turnover of Davidge Data Systems and Ubitrade - the units acquired in 2004, but excluding Oasis which was bought out in 2005.
Front Office business, particularly affected by M&A activities among bank prospects in France and Italy, dipped by five per cent, whereas the post-trade derivatives business lines comprising GL Clearvision-Ubix and Tradix grew by more than 10% on a constant consolidation basis.
Fermat, the risk management package for which Ubitrade has European distribution rights, posted exceptional business results for 2005, with a non-recurring turnover, including a significant proportion of outsourced consulting services of over €14M - compared to €2.2M in 2004.
In overseas markets, the firm describes its expansion into Eastern Europe as "promising" with almost €1.5M achieved in Russia. GL Trade opened an office in Moscow at the end of 2005 to support this development.
Revenues in the Asia Pacific region and the Americas increased by 19% and 42% respectively.
A full financial statement and profitability will be confirmed in early March.