To the Members of First Derivatives Plc
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First Derivatives plc First Derivatives plc Annual report and accounts 2019 Annual report and accounts 2019 AT THE CORE OF DATA SCIENCE FD’s world-leading analytics technology and data science expertise are disrupting industries, helping our clients to generate more revenue and increase their operational efficiency See more online at: firstderivatives.com and kx.com STRATEGIC REPORT CORPORATE GOVERNANCE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 01 Highlights 24 Board of Directors 41 Independent auditor’s report 02 At a glance 26 Chairman’s governance 47 Consolidated statement 04 Chairman’s review statement of comprehensive income 06 Business model 27 Governance framework 49 Consolidated balance sheet 08 Business review 29 Report of the Audit Committee 50 Company balance sheet 14 Strategy 32 Report of the Nomination 51 Consolidated statement 15 Financial review Committee of changes in equity 20 Principal risks and uncertainties 34 Report of the Remuneration 53 Company statement of changes 22 People strategy Committee in equity 38 Directors’ report 55 Consolidated cash flow 40 Statement of Directors’ statement responsibilities 56 Company cash flow statement 57 Notes 116 Directors and advisers IBC Global directory Highlights FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS Report Strategic Revenue £m Operating profit £m £217.4m £18.7m 18.7 217.4 14.7 186.0 151.7 Corporate Governance 12.2 2017 2018 2019 2017 2018 2019 Adjusted diluted EPS p Net debt £m 83.2p £16.5m Financial Statements Financial 16.5 16.2 83.2 72.2 13.5 61.3 2017 2018 2019 2017 2018 2019 OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS • FinTech revenue up 17% to £166.7m (2018: £142.9m), • High-profile new client wins across markets including driven by an expansion of services provided to Fingrid, BISTel and Survalent clients and new client wins with the Canadian • Significant contract expansion and appointment as Securities Administrators, BitMEX and a major Innovation Partner with Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Japanese bank • • MarTech revenue up 8% to £41.4m (2018: £38.2m), Enhanced partnership and collaboration activity driven by 25% growth in subscriptions for our including with Amazon Web Services, Google, H20.ai and CGI Marketing Cloud platform, powered by Kx • Revenue from other markets increased by 85% to £9.3m (2018: £5.0m), further evidencing the initial success of our strategy to penetrate high-value markets such as Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), automotive and precision manufacturing Business Review and Financial Review pages 08 to 19 firstderivatives.com 01 Strategic Report At a glance OUR BUSINESS First Derivatives (FD) is a software and services company with world-leading intellectual property in ultra-high-performance analytics (Kx) and extensive domain knowledge and capabilities in capital markets systems and technology. Managed services Kx technology addresses one of the largest and most and consulting demanding challenges in analytics, namely how to FD provides a range of services worldwide to its capture and analyse data to make real-time decisions clients in the capital markets sector, focused on in a world where data volumes are increasing supporting mission-critical systems as well as exponentially, and existing technologies fail due helping them to achieve and maintain regulatory to technological or commercial limitations. compliance. These services can be delivered by operating either from the client site or on a Kx technology is widely adopted throughout the global near-shore basis (or adopting a hybrid approach). financial industry, at banks, hedge funds and exchanges, and is employed across a range of data-intensive arenas, Clients include many of the world’s leading banks from high-frequency trading to market data storage with FD supporting their activities across a range and analysis. With this pedigree, Kx is now expanding of operations including credit, interest rate, foreign across multiple sectors challenged by increasing data exchange, equity, cash and derivatives markets. volumes and the need to make rapid, informed For more than 20 years FD has built a reputation for operational decisions. client-centric delivery that has enabled consistent growth from a growing base of repeat revenue. OUR Kx PLATFORM As well as its world-leading performance, Kx also stands out for the fact that it provides a single integrated platform to efficiently analyse vast datasets. Deployable from chip to edge to cloud, the power of the Kx platform has the capacity to disrupt industries, providing both high performance and low total cost of ownership. OUR JOURNEY SO FAR 1996 2002 2009 2014 2015 2016 2018 2019 Corporate First IPO Acquisition of Derivatives on AIM control of founded Kx Systems Software Software MarTech Kx for Sensors Kx for Machine division Software launched Learning formed launched launched Vendor Regulatory Managed services Services and & Compliance and consulting Managed Services Practice launched launched 02 First Derivatives plc Annual Report 2019 OUR GLOBAL REACH Report Strategic 15 4 2,400+ LOCATIONS CONTINENTS EMPLOYEES Corporate Governance Financial Statements Financial CURRENT MARKETS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH Finance Digital marketing Manufacturing Utilities Internet of Things Energy Automotive Industrial Telecoms Precision manufacturing Kx has been deployed for numerous use cases, initially based Although financial services will to remain the dominant on the capture and analysis of market data. In recent years a client sector in the medium term, the Group increasingly broad range of capital markets applications has been developed, sees opportunities for its Kx technology, and applications including market and trading surveillance, pre-trade decision built on the platform, in new markets outside finance. making, post-trade reporting and liquidity management. The Group has identified digital marketing (MarTech), The Group provides a suite of services to its clients in the utilities, precision manufacturing, automotive, telecoms capital markets sector across the world, focused on supporting and the Industrial Internet of Things as markets that are mission-critical systems as well as helping them to achieve particularly attractive. It has therefore invested in sales, and maintain regulatory compliance. There is considerable engineering and R&D to target these markets, as well scope for further growth in capital markets, both from gaining as forming partnerships and making acquisitions new clients and providing additional software and services to where appropriate. the existing client base. firstderivatives.com 03 Strategic Report Chairman’s review Another year of progress During the past year FD has continued to make progress on our journey to become a leader in ultra-high-performance analytics. Our investment across the business, particularly in our people, has continued to deliver results with Group revenue increasing by 17% to £217m. This performance reflects solid execution of the Board’s strategy. In addition to the achievements in our established field of capital markets, the operational progress achieved during the year in new industry sectors, which is only beginning to be reflected in financial performance, gives confidence that the Group can continue to deliver strong organic growth. The Group’s strategy has three intertwined strands: to become a leading global capital markets consulting practice; to build on the leading position of the Group’s Kx technology in capital markets; and to leverage Kx’s performance advantages to penetrate new markets. During the year, we delivered continued growth in our managed services and consulting business, with revenue increasing by 17% to £86m as opportunities to build on our core competencies presented themselves. In particular we invested in our vendor services practice in North America and the successful delivery of a number of contracts in The operational progress achieved the region provides confidence in our growth potential during the year in new industry in future years. sectors, which is only beginning In total, software revenues increased by 17% to £131m. Looking at these figures in more detail, our FinTech software to be reflected in financial revenues continue to grow strongly as structural changes performance, gives confidence affecting our customer base are playing to Kx’s strengths – greater regulation and increasing cloud adoption are that the Group can continue to both driving strategic conversations around greater use deliver strong organic growth.’’ of our technology. We remain excited by the potential of our technology in other markets. Our MarTech offering continues to showcase this potential, with investment in the functionality of the product and our sales capability resulting in continued rapid growth, particularly in subscription revenue. 04 First Derivatives plc Annual Report 2019 Strategic Report Strategic Corporate Governance Managed services Group revenue and consulting revenue Kx revenue £217m £86m £131m Statements Financial +17% +17% +17% In other markets, we made good progress during the year in Last year the Group reported on its gender pay gap for building out the infrastructure needed to deliver significant the first time and, although performing better than its future revenues in a number of diverse industry sectors. We peers, I noted that more remained to be done. I am made substantial investments in R&D, sales and marketing, therefore pleased to report that the action steps put in strengthening our domain expertise and building our global place helped deliver a significant reduction in this year’s presence.