OFX moves into takeover mode

John Kavanagh
M&A

Foreign exchange company OFX has bounced back from the COVID-related problems that hit its bottom line in 2020/21, reporting solid growth in turnover and income, and a doubling of profit in the year to March.

Foreign exchange turnover was A$33.2 billion – up 32.7 per cent from $25 billion the previous year.

Net operating income rose 24.7 per cent to $147 million and net profit rose from $12.1 million in 202/21 to $24.4 million in the year to March.

FX losses were down 94 per cent to $100,000.

Revenue rose in all segments, with the strongest growth in consumer and corporate. Active client numbers grew 3.3 per cent to 143,100.

The hardest hit segment in 2020/21 was consumer, where sources of revenue include holidays and travel, migration, property investment, loan repayments and expat salary transfers. All were affected by COVID.

Consumer revenue fell from $67.9 million in 2019/20 to $57.4 million in 2020/21 before recovering to $71.3 million in the year to March.

Corporate revenue has been more consistent over the past few years. It rose from $51.7 million in 2019/20 to $57.5 million in 2020/21 and $65.7 in the year to March. The corporate division’s business is largely the provision to cross-border payment services to SMEs.

In recent years the company has looked to grow its share in a subset of the SME segment – online sellers. Revenue in that segment rose from $8.3 million to $8.6 million year-on-year.

The other area where OFX has looked for growth is in what it calls “enterprise” business, providing white label services to other financial institutions. Revenue in that segment rose from $4.6 million to $6 million year on year.

The company made two investments during the year – the first in its history. In June it made a $6.1 million investment in a European treasury management software company, TreasurUp. 

It hopes this investment will allow it to provide automated hedging and risk management services for SME clients. 

And in December, it announced a deal to acquire a Canadian company, Firma Foreign Exchange Corporation, for $98 million. The transaction was completed earlier this month.

OFX chief executive Skander Malcolm said Firma would benefit from the digitisation of its business, based on OFX technology.