Cornerstone FS plc (LON:CSFS), a Forex and payments solutions company, today provided an update on trading for the year ended 31 December 2023.

The Group confirmed that the previously reported strong trading momentum was sustained to year end and, as a result, it expects to report a year-on-year increase in revenue of approximately 100% to £9.6 million (2022: £4.8m), ahead of market expectations. The significant growth reflects the advancements made across the business driving year-on-year increases in active customers (2023: 906, 2022: 803) and average transaction value.

Key elements of this have been growth in the sales team and enhancing and expanding the Group’s offering, in particular increasing the number of counterparties to broaden the range of currencies and countries where it can transact.

The Group expects to report an improvement in gross margin to c. 63% for 2023 (2022: 60.9%), reflecting a lower proportion of revenue derived from white label partners following the strategic decision to manage down almost all of its historic white label business. The Group also saw an improvement resulting from the change in commission arrangements agreed with Robert O’Brien, General Manager APAC and Middle East, in the first half of the year.

With the increase in revenue and gross margin, as well as continued careful management of the cost base, the Group expects to report adjusted EBITDA for 2023 of not less than £1.4m, which is significantly ahead of current market expectations, compared with an adjusted EBITDA loss of £0.9m for the previous year.

The Group generated a net cash inflow of c. £1.6m during the year, including a cash inflow from operating activities of c. £1.4m (2022: net cash outflow from operating activities of £0.8m), with cash and cash equivalents at 31 December 2023 of £2.3m (30 June 2023: £0.8m; 31 December 2022: £0.7m).

James Hickman, CEO of Cornerstone, said:

“It has been an excellent year for Cornerstone as we made substantial strategic progress culminating in a set of strong financial results which significantly exceeded the Board’s expectations this time last year. We have enhanced our sales team and expanded our offering, which has resulted in us executing higher value transactions and with a greater number of active customers. With a highly scalable platform, along with careful management of our cost base, we are also benefitting from the operating leverage within our business and 2023 has seen us report our maiden full year adjusted EBITDA. We look forward to updating the market on our success as we progress through 2024.”