FMDQ Securities Exchange Plc is planning to make changes to its name and the company’s shareholders have approved the decision. The new name will reflect the company’s growth and portfolio expansion.
The change in the company’s name will see ‘Holdings Plc’ replace ‘Securities Exchange’. This means that FMDQ will now be known as FMDQ Holdings Plc. The change was approved at the company’s 7th Annual General Meeting in Lagos on Friday.
FMDQ began operation in Nigeria in 2013 but was registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2012. It’s a self-regulatory organisation for the OTC markets. It focuses on organising and deepening the markets.
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The reason for the change: According to the company, the change was prompted by the registration of the company’s wholly-owned clearing and settlement company, FMDQ Clear Limited by SEC in November 2017.
The Chairman of FMDQ, Dr Joseph Nnanna stated that the operation of FMDQ Clear Limited increased the 2017 N13.20 billion consolidated revenue and N13.25 billion company revenue by 423.81% and 427.89%. The clearing and settlement company commenced business in 2018.
While consolidated expenses increased from N2.20 billion in 2017 to N5.99 billion in 2018, the consolidated profit before tax of N7.21 billion significantly surpassed N349.76 million in 2017.
“Turnover from trading activities on our platform, in the fixed income, currency, and foreign exchange product lines, also exceeded the 2017 performance by 22% to settle at N182.62 trillion in 2018.
“Our securities admission business continued to grow in 2018 as we admitted 78 debt securities, up by 58% from the 50 securities admitted in the previous year, with a total value of N1.02 trillion in 2018, compared to N236.9 billion in 2017.”
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In addition, FMDQ’s membership also grew by 7%, from 181 members to 195 members across all categories.
According to Nnanna, the plan of the company now is to prepare to operate a standalone central counterparty next year by strengthening the clearing and settlement arm operationally and strategically.
“This objective will be to further boost its value delivery to the fixed income, foreign exchange and derivatives market.”
