Plus500 raises outlook as Q3 revenue grows faster than EBITDA

Plus500 said on 26 October that full-year revenue and EBITDA would exceed market expectations. Its unaudited third-quarter figures show revenue outpacing EBITDA, even as new customers grew faster than active customers.[1]

New customers means first-time depositors; active customers means customers making at least one real-money trade during the period. These populations should not be substituted for one another. The release calls AUAC average user acquisition cost.[1]

The margin changes the reading of growth

Calculated from the disclosed figures, quarterly EBITDA margin was 43.50%, against 45.27% a year earlier: a decline of about 1.8 percentage points. The company rounds the current margin to 44%. This calculation uses EBITDA divided by revenue; it is neither a statutory net-profit margin nor a forecast.[1]

Customer growth, acquisition spending and revenue can move together without establishing which change caused another. A quarterly acquisition-cost average also cannot show the eventual lifetime profitability of a customer cohort. Those distinctions matter when assessing the sustainability of the higher revenue.

Expansion has several different clocks

Non-OTC activities contributed approximately 16% of nine-month revenue and 31% of new customers. Hedge in the US and Guru in Brazil are conditional acquisitions; the US app is planned for Q1 2027. The update also describes expanded OTC dealing hours. Those hours concern the broker’s products, rather than a change to underlying stock-exchange opening times.[1]

Distribution, product launch and regulatory completion are separate milestones. The results establish group performance; they do not establish identical account permissions or product access for every local Plus500 entity. The useful comparison for a customer remains the offering of the entity named in the account agreement.

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