UK derivatives trading ASP Ffastfill is reporting widening losses for the first half of the year, although the group's revenue grew to £1.867m, 14% higher than the £1.636m for the same period last year.
The vendor posted operating losses before exceptional items of £1.414m for the six months to 30 September 2004, up from £1.245m last year. Ffastfill says the acquisition of back office firm Future Dynamics, which it bought in July this year, added approximately £380k to monthly fixed costs.
The results also included £240k of exceptional expenses relating to the integration of the Future Dynamics unit, covering redundancies and building closures.
Revenue during the period grew to £1.867m. In the first six months of last year the firm recognized approximately £520k of one-time revenues from customers' contracts. Ffastfill says it has also consolidated the Future Dynamics revenue from 1 July 2004, which added approximately £470k of revenue in the six months.
Keith Todd, executive chairman at Ffastfill, says the highlight of the period was winning the contract to provide the trade execution service for the joint Reuters/CME project. He admits that initial customer contracts for this service are small, but says they provide the potential for significant revenue in the future.
Looking ahead Todd says he is confident of further improvement in the performance in the second half of the year.
Ffastfill shares were up 0.25 pence (3.80%) to 6.75 pence in mid morning trading.