Strong performance by Stock Exchange

Irish Stock Exchange boss Deirdre Somers has said a strong performance last year shows that the Dublin exchange remains a vibrant, growing business.

Despite a number of high profile de-listings in recent years, the ISE benefited from improved market conditions in 2013 and saw strong growth across its core debt, funds and equities businesses.

The Exchange grew its overall revenues by 12%, last year, to €22.9 million; with pre-tax profits up by 15% at €7.2m. Operating profit, for the year, was up by 25% to just under €6.4m.

In addition, five new companies listed on the ISE, the highest number of new Dublin-based IPOs for a single year since 2007.

“These listings — together with a further three new IPOs so far in 2014, demonstrate that the public markets continue to offer an important source of funding to growing companies and that the ISE can provide valuable access to a global pool of investors,” according to Ms Somers.

“The diversified nature of our business and the depth of our customer relationships meant we were well-placed to take full advantage of the opportunities that arose during the year,” she added.

The increase in revenues was mainly driven by growth in the Exchange’s international debt-related Primary Markets business — particularly from listing debt securities — where revenues grew by 17% to €15.4m and accounted for 67% of the ISE’s total annual revenue.

According to Ms Somers, management is looking to build on last year’s performance by developing new revenue streams.

“The recent announcement of our planned dual listing arrangement with Nasdaq OMX shows our commitment to providing innovative services for the companies and institutions we are here to serve,” she said.

The ISE — which recently changed its corporate structure to plc status — also said that income from investments fell from €1.2m to €800,000, last year, mainly due to the prevailing lower interest rate environment.