Aquis Exchange PLC, the exchange services group, is pleased to announce a trading update for the 12 months to 31 December 2020, and an operational update on recent developments across its three divisions.

Trading update
In its results for the 12 months to 31 December 2020, the Company anticipates reporting revenues of no less than £11.0m, marginally ahead of market expectations. In addition, the Company expects to deliver its maiden full year pre and post-tax profit, a performance ahead of market expectations.

Revenue growth has been driven in part by continued high levels of trading on Aquis Exchange alongside strong technology sales, with a number of clients having renewed licensing contracts at the end of the year, and a growth in data revenues.

Exciting news: we issued a Trading Update today indicating that Aquis expects to post its first ever full-year profit when it announces results next month! https://t.co/F4s9uhBJZT

— Aquis Exchange (@Aquis_Exchange) February 26, 2021

Aquis Exchange, the Company’s pan-European equities trading business

The Company’s pan-European equities trading business is executed across its two trading venues, London and Paris, in order to facilitate the trading of EU-listed shares. Since 4 January 2021, Aquis has seen 99% of its continuous European share trading move across to its Paris venue and the Company is pleased to report a smooth transition following Brexit. Service has remained constant for its clients, and Aquis continues to provide the greatest depth of available liquidity amongst its peers.

Following the UK government’s agreement on equivalence with Switzerland, the Company resumed trading in Swiss shares on 4 February 2021. The shares traded on Aquis Exchange’s London venue include some 130 key Swiss listed companies including Novartis, Roche and Nestlé.

Aquis Technologies, the Company’s multi-asset class technology licensing service

Following on from the cloud deployment collaboration with the Singapore Exchange and Amazon Web Services announced on 20 November 2020, Aquis Technologies is building a pipeline of potential customers from across different asset classes and different geographies.

Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE), the Company’s primary listings market for SMEs

Aquis is pleased to announce that Liberum, Panmure Gordon, Peel Hunt and Zeus Capital have joined Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE) as corporate advisors, meaning these institutions are now able to prepare applications and assess the suitability of companies for admission to the AQSE Growth Market. This represents a further endorsement of the Company’s aim to develop the exchange into the home of growth companies, and brings the total number of corporate advisers to AQSE to 28.

There is a strong IPO pipeline for 2021, including the listing of Samarkand Group. The cross-border eCommerce technology and retail group announced on 8 February its intention to float on AQSE, demonstrating our ability to compete with other UKexchanges in the IPO market.

As part of its strategy to transform the UK listings space, Aquis has also been participating in the UK Listings Review chaired by Lord Hill. This review was launched in November 2020 by the Chancellor, as part of a plan to strengthen the UK’s position as a leading global finance centre.

The Aquis Stock Exchange rulebook changes implemented in December 2020 have been operating in practice for a number of weeks, with new admissions to the Apex market required to publish a growth prospectus, facilitating private investor participation in Apex IPOs.

Alasdair Haynes, Chief Executive Officer of Aquis, commented:

“We have long been well-prepared for Brexit-related changes and are pleased to report the successful and seamless continuation of our operations in the UK and the transfer of our European trading business to the Paris office.

Despite the continued pandemic-related restrictions seen across our markets, we continue to achieve substantial operational progress and have beaten market expectations. Looking forward to 2021, we remain confident in our ability to execute against our growth strategy.”

This announcement contains inside information under UK MAR.

Source: Aquis