Swissquote received a special gift just before Christmas. The building permit for the new company headquarters in Gland was officially signed. The "La Crétaux" project had caused quite a stir in recent years. Critics objected to the planned 60-metre-high office tower. Now that voters have already given the green light in May 2022, nothing stands in the way of construction. With the modern 15 level building and green campus, Swissquote wants to expand its workforce and attract young talent in particular. The digital money house is already advancing to a new level on the stock exchange. Immediately after the turn of the year, the mid-cap managed to break through a striking horizontal resistance. Swissquote left the round mark of CHF 200 behind it.
The initial spark for the upward breakout turned out to be less the building permit from Gland than the first figures for 2023. Swissquote posted a record year. The management team led by CEO Marc Bürki is expecting net income of around CHF 530 million. "Pre-tax profit is expected to be at least CHF 255 million," the managers write in a press release. They estimate client assets at CHF 58 billion as at New Year's Eve 2023. The fintech company has grown strongly compared to the previous period. While income increased by just under 30%, earnings before taxes rose disproportionately by 37%. "The pre-tax profit, which exceeded expectations, was achieved in a difficult market environment," the company emphasizes. Meanwhile, client assets increased by 11% in 2023. Swissquote recorded a net inflow of new assets worth the equivalent of CHF 5 bn.
The digital financial services provider had already collected CHF 3 billion of this from customers in the first half of the year. These funds were spread across more than 555,000 accounts - the highest level since the platform was founded in 1996. On the revenue side, the business has recently undergone significant changes. For years, the majority of net income came from traditional brokerage. In 2021, 80% was still attributable to transactions. Here, Swissquote lives primarily from brokerage fees. After the ratio shrank to 60% in 2022, non-transaction-based income exceeded that from transactions for the first time from January to June 2023. Swissquote generated 57% of its revenue from sources such as custody fees and net interest income. The financial group will present further key figures for the past financial year and the dividend proposal on March 14. The CEO is then also expected to present an outlook for the current year.
Holders of the new Softcallable Barrier Reverse Convertible can look forward to the presentation of the full year results with confidence. Irrespective of the further performance of the Swissquote share price, they can expect a fixed coupon payment of 8.80% p.a. There is partial protection for the nominal: as long as the underlying does not fall to or below the barrier of 69% of the initial level, full redemption takes place on the redemption date. If this calculation does not work out, the partial protection expires. In this case, Swissquote would have to return to or above the strike by the final fixing in order to avoid discounts. Please also note the soft callable function. It gives the issuer the option to terminate the BRC early. If Leonteq makes use of this on one of the dates documented in the termsheet, product holders will receive the pro rata coupon in addition to the full nominal within a few days.
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