NZX reports 42pc profit boost

Photo / Richard Robinson

NZX is reporting a 42 per cent rise in normalised first half net profit to $6.6 million, as revenue rose 11 per cent from a year earlier to $26.6 million.

Standout units were the markets business, where revenue rose 15 per cent to $10.3m, while the infrastructure business - which operates clearing and settlement platforms in securities and energy - had a 21 per cent rise in revenue to $6m.

Revenue in the information business for the six months to June 30 was 2 per cent higher than a year earlier at $10.2m, NZX said today.

While revenue from agri-information activities rose 7 per cent to $5.7m, securities information revenue fell 3 per cent to $4.5m amid flat market data volumes and an appreciating US dollar, the currency in which data terminals are priced.

Operating expenditure was down 3 per cent to $14.9m, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, and financial instruments (ebitdaf) rose 36 per cent to $11.7m.

NZX chief executive Mark Weldon said the company expected a strong second half trend to happen again this year, reflecting some seasonal factors, price adjustments across a large percentage of the revenue base introduced on July 1, and some factors particular to the 2011 outlook.

NZX was traditionally a second-half-year business, with an average of 54 per cent of annual revenues earned in the second half during the past five years.

Net profit fell 21 per cent to $4.5m, affected by a non-cash foreign exchange loss on Markit shares of $1.9m, compared to a foreign exchange gain of $1.2m a year earlier.

- NZPA