Swiss derivatives firm Leonteq will post a clearly higher pretax profit for the full year than in 2017. Operating costs also rose.
Leonteq, a Zurich-based structured investment products specialist, expects a pretax profit of about 90 million Swiss francs ($90.6 million) for the full year 2018, it said in a statement on Thursday. Revenues rose faster than costs.
In 2017, Leonteq posted a pretax profit of 23.3 million francs and in the first half of 2018 the figure was 40.4 million francs.
Trading Income Up on Volatility
In the second half, revenue from commissions and fees declined slightly compared with the same period of 2017 due to lower client activity. However, trading income rose significantly because of the higher volatility at financial markets.
Operating profit in the full year will be slightly higher than the 185 million forecast at the time of the half-year report.
Target Remains Ambitious
The targets Leonteq had defined for 2020 remain unchanged. The company wants to have an operating profit of about 300 million francs by 2020 and continue with its disciplined cost management. The cost-income-ratio ought to be less than 70 percent.
Leonteq will publish consolidated full-year figures on February 7, 2019.
