Return on investment (ROI) improved from 40.9 per cent to 56.5 per cent. Return on equity improved from 29.3 per cent to 39.9 per cent. Profit per share was 1.71 euro (1.01 euro).
The favourable development was mainly due to a significant growth in trading volumes for shares which was based on interesting listed companies, larger number of broker members and new listings.
In the extraordinary income, the value-added tax has been included that may be returned to the Group under the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court from 18 January 2001. In the decision, the Court holds that the Group is not VAT-liable for its income from and expenses for securities trading and clearing. Due to the uncertainty involved in the further processing of the extraordinary items, a corresponding sum has been written as an obligatory reserve in extraordinary costs to burden the results.
The Board of Directors will recommend to the Annual General Meeting that a dividend of 0.80 euro per share or the total amount of 10 777 382.40 euro will be paid for the financial year 2000. For the year 1999, 0.50 euro per share or in total 6 797 345.99 euro was paid in dividend.
At the end of 2000, the HEX Group employed 290 people and in average 250 people during the year. At the end of the previous year, the number of personnel was 224 and the average during the year was 198.
