LONDON (Alliance News) - FairFX Group PLC, which uses a cloud-based peer-to-peer payments platform to support foreign currency payments for both retail and business customers, on Friday said its pretax loss widened in 2015, citing an increase in its marketing expenditure and the number of people it employs.
Its pretax loss widened to GBP3.4 million in 2015, from GBP2.8 million in 2014, even as revenue on currency transactions grew by 36% to GBP7.4 million. The loss came as market expenditure rose to GBP3.2 million from GBP1.8 million, employee numbers rose to 65 from 53, and a charge was taken for share options granted to motivate management and staff.
FairFX said it added 103,338 new retail customers in 2015, bringing the total to 508,048. In an update for the first quarter of 2016, the company said activity was in line with forecasts for 2016, with underlying growth of 3% in revenue for the period at GBP145.5 million and 16,280 new customers added.
"The company had a strong 2015 and delivered excellent revenue improvements by following our strategic focus on the increasing retail card customers," Chief Executive Officer Ian Strafford-Taylor said in a statement.
"Despite a somewhat weaker macro environment during the first quarter, our underlying customer base is performing strongly," Strafford-Taylor said.
In March, AIM-listed activist investor Crystal Amber Fund gave its backing to FairFX, agreeing to invest GBP5.0 million for a 24% stake in the company. Over time, Crystal Amber's could come to own 29% of FairFX.
The money will be used to boost marketing and drive more rapid deployment of new technology both for retail and corporate customers, Strafford-Taylor said.
Shares in FairFX were up 1.6% at 34.02 pence on Friday morning.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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