Tech

Dutch payments firm Adyen first-half profit surges

Key Points
  • Net profit in the first half rose to 48.2 million euros ($55.1 million), up 75 percent from a year ago.
  • Sales soared 67 percent to 156.4 million euros.
Adyen CEO: Shareholders felt IPO was the right thing to do
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Adyen CEO: Shareholders felt IPO was the right thing to do

Adyen, the Dutch company which processes payments for Netflix and Facebook reported at 75 percent jump in first-half net profit, driven by existing and new customers including retailer eBay.

It was the first earnings report for the Amsterdam-based Adyen as a public company, whose wild initial public offering in June saw shares rise 100 percent from the IPO price of 240 euros per share.

Net profit in the first half rose to 48.2 million euros ($55.1 million), up 75 percent from a year ago. Sales soared 67 percent to 156.4 million euros.

"Our growth was mainly driven by existing merchants and we successfully added household names such as eBay, Valve and Dunkin' Donuts to our platform, CEO Pieter van der Does said in a statement.

The total volume of transactions processed by the company grew by 43 percent to 70 billion euros, Adyen said.

Adyen helps retailers take customer payments -- in any form and either online or in-store -- and usher them through complicated payment networks quickly. It operates globally, but more than half of transaction it processes derive from Europe.

Pieter van der Does, chief executive officer of Adyen.
Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares have continued to rise since June and closed at 548.1 euros on Tuesday - now 128 percent above their issue price.

That has led some analysts to urge investor caution as the company's free float is relatively restricted: its IPO featured only secondary shares, and investors sold shares representing only a 13.4 percent stake. Barclays rates the shares a "Sell" with 470 euro 12 month target price, while Citi has a neutral rating with 12 month target of 600 euros.

Among major risk factors in its prospectus, Adyen cited fierce competition from the likes of WorldPay and Wirecard, as well as the fact that Adyen's top 10 clients, which also include Vodafone, Uber, eBay and Spotify, represent around 33 percent of sales.

The company, which is debt-free, on Wednesday repeated its forecast for medium-term average sales growth of at least mid 20 percent to low thirty percent, and of at least 40 percent for 2018.

It said it expects margins on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to increase to "above 55 percent" in the long term. In the first half that margin was 45 percent, up from 41 percent in the first half of 2017.