On June 23, 2022, the Expert RA rating agency confirmed the creditworthiness rating of the financial company IC Freedom Finance LLC at the giVVV level and changed the rating outlook from stable to developing. This is stated in the message of the agency.
IC Freedom Finance LLC is a professional participant in the securities market, has licenses for the trust management of securities, the implementation of dealer, brokerage and depository activities. The company owns a 93% stake in the Kazakh broker Freedom Finance JSC and about 100% in FFIN Bank LLC. The parent company is an American holding company whose shares are traded on NASDAQ.
In June 2022, it was announced that the company would exit the holding and further sell the business. At the same time, only Russian assets will be structured at IC Freedom Finance LLC, other assets that currently belong to IC will be directly owned by the holding.
The developing outlook on the rating is related to the possible multidirectional dynamics of the company's financial indicators after the completion of the sale transaction and the change of the business model. The agency also notes a decrease in the company's capital adequacy ratio for the last reporting dates, which puts additional pressure on the rating level. At the same time, since the end of March, the Bank of Russia has introduced exemptions for professional participants in the securities market - if the minimum value of the NDK is not observed, the Bank of Russia will refrain from applying measures of influence to professional participants until 31.12.2022.
The company's customer base has shown a significant increase for the second year in a row. As of 31.12.2021, the number of brokerage clients amounted to 147.8 thousand, an increase of one and a half times compared to the value at the end of 2020. The number of active clients, according to the company, exceeds 75 thousand, while a significant number of clients trade not on the Moscow Stock Exchange, but on other platforms (in particular, on the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange). Thus, the company's market and competitive positions are assessed as high.
The growth of the customer base had a positive impact on operating income. Commission income by the end of 2021 increased 2.7 times and amounted to 4.8 billion rubles. The diversification of the customer base remains at a high level: the share of the largest customer in operating expenses was 6%, the five largest accounted for 21% of total operating income for 2021.
As of 31.03.2022, the volume of assets of IC Freedom Finance LLC amounted to 70.7 billion rubles, the amount of capital – 10.7 billion rubles, as of 31.12.2021 – 70.2 billion rubles and 13.4 billion rubles, respectively. By the end of 2021, the volume of commission income amounted to 4.8 billion rubles, net profit – 303 million rubles.
