FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that Hamburg, Germany based social trading focused broker NAGA Group is expanding its operations south of the equator, with new operations planned for Australia and South Africa.

We also understand from regulatory filings that NAGA generated revenues of around €2.2 million in July 2020, on trading volume of just under €10 billion (USD $11.8 billion), and 532,000 real money transactions. In the first half of the year NAGA Group saw revenues of €12.1 million, although most of that (€7.0 million) came during the first quarter. The July figures look like NAGA is back at its Q1 revenue pace.

Given the company’s upturn in fortunes (NAGA had a loss of €13.4 million in 2019), NAGA management has apparently decided to expand NAGA services to Australia and the African region. FNG has learned that the company has registered new subsidiaries in both Australia and South Africa, and is in process already of applying for licenses in both jurisdictions – an ASIC AFS license in Australia, and an FSCA license in South Africa.

Publicly traded NAGA Group (XETRA:N4G) has seen its shares rise more than four-fold in 2020 thanks to improved results and outlook. However the stock is down almost 50% from its 52 week high of 4.41 set in early June, following the release of its Q1 results.

NAGA Group one year share chart. Source: Google Finance.

Ben Bilski, Founder & CEO of The NAGA Group AG commented:

“These are very special times for the entire global economy. It is now more than evident that everyone and everything is being digitized. In particular, digital solutions for financial services are seeing considerable demand and this is opening up new space for growth. Due to our fully digital structure, we are in able to scale very quickly and enter markets completely online. We believe that NAGA’s products and services meet all criteria for customers in the digital age. We are ready to scale NAGA into additional target markets faster than ever before using a robust regulatory setup.”

With the registration of NAGA Markets Australia Pty Ltd last week, NAGA indicated that it plans to commence operations in Australia in 2021, subject to regulatory approval from local regulator ASIC. A local presence in Sydney is planned for the coming months.

“With more than six million people actively investing in the financial markets, Australia shows enormous potential for us. Our platform is ready for the Australian market and, in our opinion, is a perfect fit for the Australian customer profile. We will expand our customer base, more trading hours per day and significantly accelerate our growth. We look forward to bringing the most advanced social trading technology to Australia, “added Bilski.

NAGA is also applying for a license from the FCSA in South Africa with a local presence in Cape Town and is also planning to introduce the South Africa business at the beginning of next year.

“South Africa has shown strong growth in the CFD and stock trading market in recent years. With the same time zone and English as our mother tongue, entering the market will be extremely efficient for us. Based on our own market research, we now have the certainty that a social investing -Platform like NAGA will have a head start in South Africa and that the market still has considerable growth potential, “said Bilski, commenting on the planned start in South Africa.

NAGA operates the naga.com website via the CySEC CIF license of NAGA Markets Ltd. The company also has an offshore entity NAGA Global (SV) Ltd based in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In addition, NAGA has two training centers in Nigeria, namely in Port Harcourt and Lagos.

Regarding the July results, Bilski added:

“Despite the fact that summer time usually has less trading activity due to the holiday season, we are extremely satisfied with the result in July. What is particularly encouraging is that we had a profitable month at net income level, despite investing heavily in growth. We are on track to achieve the targets we published last month. It is now also clearly evident that the volatility of the first quarter of the year due to COVID-19 contributed to our sales, however, the real driver of our positive results is the growth of the customer base on a global scale. For us, it is important to further expand our customer base, increase our brand awareness and do even more marketing.”