Derivatives trading software house patsystems is reporting operating losses for the year to December 2000 of £9.5 million, against £1.73 million for the previous period, as it spent heavily to accelerate growth.
The loss is in line with expectations, the company says. The company spent £11.8 million in the year to end-December - mostly on staff recruitment, new office opening and advisory services - but says many of the costs are non-recurring. It points to fourth-quarter figures which indicate an accelerating revenue growth of 47% against costs of only eight per cent.
By the end of Q1 2001 patsystems had extended its market coverage from three to 13 markets, offering connectivity to nine derivatives exchanges and four equity exchanges. The company also extended its geographical reach to cover all three continents, with regional offices in London, Chicago, Singapore and Tokyo, and sales and service satellite offices in New York, Frankfurt and Sydney.
The company also acquired options trading workstation specialist Wintrade and bought the ENS matching engine. Additionally patsystems signed a strategic partnership with Tradeworx to jointly develop trading and analytic tools covering equity, equity derivative and other derivative markets
Patsystems says it has over £36.6m of cash resources left from its flotation in March 2000 and is fully funded, at current rates, for over 3 years.