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Saxo Bank Salutes Business Milestone

Tom Burroughes

22 May 2017

, the online trading and wealth management house, said it has reached a record high for client collateral deposits, highlighting rising turnover fuelled in part by geopolitical upheavals in recent months.

Deposits now exceed DKR100 billion (around $15 billion), the Copenhagen-headquartered firm, which recently announced that a Chinese conglomerate had become a 25.7 per cent owner of the business, said in a statement.

Trading activity - and hence demand for collateral - has been brisk with market volatility of recent months amid the Brexit, Trump and French political issues helping to drive demand, it said. On 9 November, 2016, a day after the US election, total client trades on that day reached a record level of 490,000, Saxo said.

Client collateral deposits nearly doubled from 2013, when they stood at a total of DKK50.6 billion, the organisation said.

As of the last set of financial results, operating income for the Group in 2016 was DKK2.9 billion, rising from DKK 2.1 billion in 2015. Net profit was DKK302 million for 2016.

As reported earlier in May (see here), Saxo Bank became a portfolio company of Geely Internatiional Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Geely is the owner of Swedish carmaker Volvo and the maker of London's iconic black cabs. Co-founder of Saxo Lars Seier Christensen agreed to sell his 25.71 per cent stake in the Denmark-headquartered bank to Geely, pending regulatory approvals. Christensen served as co-chief executive until year-end 2015. Financial terms of that transaction weren’t disclosed.