PLUS promises costs blitz

21/05/2010 Robert Tyerman

PLUS Markets Group aims to cut costs 40 per cent and achieve breakeven ‘within two years’ after £8.2 million annual losses.

The AIM-quoted company, which operates the PLUS-quoted share market and PLUS trading platforms for AIM and some fully-listed shares, ‘will not require a fund raising in the foreseeable future’, insists chairman Giles Vardey. He and his colleagues are conducting a strategic review into how to extract profits from providing its trading platforms, which currently make no money from handling heavy volumes of share deals, and to modify its technology to the same end.

According to Vardey, achievable cost reductions would cut operating losses from £8.5 million to £2 million even if revenue stayed flat at last year’s depressed £3 million. He says ‘new joiner activity’ has provided a stimulus to PLUS-quoted, which performed ‘ahead of expectations’ in the first four months of this year.

Shares in PLUS Markets, which nearly reached 40p in 2006, now languish at 2.38p, though dealers report heavy recent buying interest. Meanwhile, acquisitive digital marketing agency dotDigital, having clinched a £1 million shares and cash takeover of search engine marketing concern Netcallidus, now plans to move from PLUS to AIM and is thought to be contemplating a funding for further acquisitions.