Why CMC Markets is going after big money

That expansion was clear in these maiden full-year results. Active clients - those who have taken a position in the last year - increased 14 per cent to 57,329, and the number of trades swelled by half to 66.8m. CMC operates across three broad geographical divisions - the UK, Europe and Canada/Asia Pacific. Net sales for the online trader are strongest at home, up 30 per cent to £63m. Meanwhile, active clients rose 12 per cent to 17.3m.

In Europe, the final clients were migrated from the legacy platform to Next Generation. The group's continental presence comprises Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Norway and Sweden, plus offices in Poland and Austria were set up during the year. Net sales increased 7 per cent to £49m, while active client numbers were up 8 per cent to 21.7m. Canada and the Asia-Pacific division enjoyed a similarly stellar year, with new accounts up 43 per cent. This ramping up of overall client volumes diluted revenue per client here and in Europe. But the growing share means CMC is now the biggest provider to high value clients in Australia, for example.

Indeed, CMC is focused on increasing its big money clients, so revenue per active client rising by 4 per cent to £2,828 was good news. "We don't want to be the fast food chain for the sector," says Mr Cruddas. What's more, the company has opened up access to its platform to institutional investors wanting to expand their product range. A stockbroker can connect to the platform in order to trade their clients' money using an API link. Typically, CMC rebates an element of the spread to the institutional investor, but this should be balanced against the lower customer acquisition cost here.

RBC Capital Markets expects adjusted EPS of 19.3p in the year to March 2017 (from 17.5p in FY2016.