CitisecOnline more than doubles Q2 income

MANILA, Philippines - Leading online brokerage house CitisecOnline.com Inc. (COL) more than doubled its net income in the second quarter of the year, bolstered by the strong growth of its Philippine operations and increased customer activity.

In a statement, COL said its consolidated net profit jumped to P100.3 million from April to June this year from only P45.1 million the previous year. This brought COL’s six-month net profit to P182.3 million or an increase of 66 percent.

 “We have seen that more and more Filipinos are getting more involved in their financial wellness by educating themselves and taking charge of their investments. The practice of investing online in the stock market is gaining ground as the public understands that this is the simple and easy way to create genuine wealth for the long-term,” said Dino Bate, president and chief executive officer of COL.

During the second quarter, revenues from COL’s Philippine operations surged 152 percent to P132.5 million, boosted by commissions generated from increased trading activity and more significantly, by its aggressive penetration into the high-net worth individuals category through its Private Clients Group.

COL’s Hong Kong operations, on the other hand, remained weak with second quarter revenues declining 30 percent year-on-year to P36.5 million as the Chinese government’s effort to avoid overheating continued to negatively affect investor confidence.

Overall, COL’s Philippine operations more than offset the sluggish output from its unit in Hong Kong. Philippine operations accounted for 78 percent of total revenues, 50 percent higher than the second quarter of last year.

Capitalizing on the market’s strong performance, COL’s total client base grew more than two-fold to 22,178 as of end-June this year from only 10,072 a year earlier.

Given the significant growth of its customer base, COL said it enlarged its market share to 19.4 percent of total trades executed in the Philippine Stock Exchange during the first half of the year from 15.1 percent the previous level.