By ELLEN READ
Dealing with the collapse of discount broker Access Brokerage has cost the stock exchange $185,000 and that's only half the likely final expense.
A similar amount is expected to show up in the full-year accounts.
Interim results released by NZX yesterday show a 6.6 per cent lift in third-quarter
net profit to $990,000.
The figure - supported by higher listing fees, income from market information and strong trading activity - was for the three months to September 30.
Total revenue rose 32.1 per cent to $4.46 million (excluding interest) as the exchange's core business areas improved from a year earlier.
Listing revenues jumped 37.5 per cent to $1.6 million, driven by an active listing market and price increases introduced on July 1.
Transaction revenue was up 14.8 per cent to $1.18 million and revenue from market information grew 17.1 per cent to $670,000.
On the expense side, staff-related costs rose 38.2 per cent to $1.24 million for the quarter. NZX now has 59 fulltime staff compared with 41 at the end of the third quarter last year. The extra numbers come from the NZX regulatory function being brought in-house and recruitment of staff to manage new initiatives.
A second one-off cost (apart from the Access expenses) was the $582,000 spent by NZX subsidiary NZX Funds Management on two acquisitions, the launch of the Smartshares brand, and the MOZY public offering.
Yesterday's numbers brought EBITDA for the nine-month period to $1.12 million, a decrease of 3.3 per cent due to the added staff and Access costs.
NZX demutualised in October 2002 and listed on its own exchange in June last year. Its shares were unchanged last night at $7.15 each.
NZX
