Marex Accelerates Growth and Delivers Strong Results in Q4 and Full Year 2024
Marex, a leading global derivatives broker and asset manager, has reported strong results for its fourth quarter and full year 2024. The company's performance demonstrates its successful execution of its strategy, delivering value to shareholders, clients, and other stakeholders.
As of year-end, Marex's share price had risen by around 64%, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. IPO performance in 2024, with further price appreciation since then. The company has taken opportunities to grow both organically and inorganically, broadening its product offering and geographic reach.
Marex's CEO, Ian Lowitt, highlighted that the company's platform is diversified and resilient, enabling it to deliver growth across a range of market environments. He also noted that Marex is grateful for the enthusiastic response from the market and appreciates the time investors and analysts have spent engaging with the company to understand its story.
The company's fourth quarter performance was strong, with continued momentum across all businesses. Marex outpaced growth in overall volumes in the markets it operates in, particularly in its securities business, which benefited from the integration of TD Cowen's prime services business and the extension of this capability on balance sheet.
Plant activity levels remained robust, with average balances growing to $15.5 billion in the fourth quarter, resulting in Q4 net interest income of $63 million, broadly in line with Q3 2024. The company delivered record full-year adjusted profit before tax of $321 million, up 40% year-over-year.
The majority of the $91 million increase in profit was due to organic growth, demonstrating the company's ability to execute its strategy and deliver value to shareholders and clients. Marex also diversified its funding sources and liquidity headroom through a $600 million issuance of senior unsecured notes.
Finally, the company announced that it will be paying a dividend of $0.14 per share this quarter, consistent with its capital allocation policy set out at IPO. The key metrics the company is focused on, namely growth, margins and returns, productivity and quality of earnings, demonstrate a strong performance in 2024.
Revenues grew 28% to $1.6 billion, and the adjusted operating pretax margin increased to 20%, delivering the 40% growth in adjusted profit before tax year-over-year. The reported return on equity was 25%, up 6 percentage points year-over-year, with an adjusted return on equity of 30% for 2024 when excluding nonoperating items.
