Record year for IMC

It’s a common habit for trading firms to postpone the release of financial results as long as is legally possible. Last february IMC released the results over 2009 – and all of a sudden Pot and Defares decide to share the information on 2010 results with the rest of the world. If intended to surprise this website, they have succeeded. Didn’t see this one coming – although the great results didn’t really come as a surprise. The rumor of a record year in terms of profits has proven correct. IMC net profits rose 96% to 51 million (2009: 26 mio). Quote reports half of the 51 million net profit is paid out as dividend, flowing in the pockets of shareholders Wiet Pot (9 mio) and Rob Defares (15,5 mio).

This year it’s fairly easy to see where the profits are coming from. The traders earned 61 million more than 2009, the net trading result in 2010 was 273 million. On average they earn a million a day, that’s pretty decent. A higher trading result usually means higher bonuses for the traders. The average salary and bonus per employee was 228.000, which is exactly 50% higher than 2009 (152k). The average headcount for 2010 was 613 (2009: 657) and they continue with the trend to hire people abroad and fire staff in Amsterdam. Frankly, this is an understatement as the Amsterdam office got rid of 81 people, from 322 down to 241. Mostly support staff probably, and management was smart enough to keep the best football players within the company. Cutting some overhead staff is fine, but somehow it’s hard to imagine running offices in half a dozen countries with only 25 support staff. The developers are probably being rebranded as “trader” or “advisor”.

Have a look at the financial statements in this searchable pdf and for triumphant annual report see here. Key message in the last one is they made a successful shift in more automated trading, away from the good old manual market making.