LONDON (Alliance News) - Fairfx Group PLC, a financial technology payments company, Tuesday said it swung to a pretax loss in 2014, as it reported higher administrative expenses and the cost of listing on the London Stock Exchange's junior market
Fairfx said it made a GBP2.8 million pretax loss in 2014, compared with a GBP129,261 pretax profit in the prior year. Revenue, defined as gross value of currency transactions sold, increased to GBP475.3 million from GBP322.4 million, bolstered by 86,397 new customers in the year.
However, administrative expenses increased to GBP6.0 million from GBP2.6 million, as the company increased its marketing expenditure with the aim of supporting its growth and increased the number of people it employs. The cost of listing on AIM amounted to GBP678,056.
The company also said that revenue for the first 12 weeks of 2015 increased to GBP143.1 million from GBP75.1 million in the corresponding period the prior year. Fairfx also said it has added 21,515 retail customers so far in 2014, bringing the total to 426,225.
"FAIRFX has had a strong year in 2014 and since joining AIM, our customer-focused innovation and agile technology platform have enabled accelerating growth. Against this backdrop we have enhanced the management team of the business and improved controls and compliance. As such the business combines solid foundations with the pace of a FinTech and is structured for scale," Chief Executive Ian Strafford-Taylor said in a statement.
Fairfx shares were up 6.5% at 44.20 pence on Tuesday.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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