iFAST reported decent fourth quarter 2021 results with revenue and net profit growing year on year but revenue growth has been decelerating. Net revenue grew 16% year on year to SGD28.2 million while net profit grew 5% year on year to SGD7.2 million. The lower net margin was mainly because of lower government support grant, increased operating expenses and losses on Chinese property developer bonds (iFAST is a bond dealer). Here are the good and the bad points about the latest results.

Bad

Revenue growth and net inflows have been decelerating

iFAST cut stockbroking commissions in 2021 and equity and bond market sentiment (particularly Hong Kong and China) was poor in the fourth quarter of 2021. iFAST is a bull market stock. Their recurring revenue is based on a percentage of average stock prices while a rising stock market usually attracts more inflows. Lower stockbroking commissions is painful in...