CMC Markets B2B growth has become the engine of a business that barely resembles the contract-for-difference (CFD) broker it was a decade ago, with the London-listed company posting its strongest annual results since the Covid-era trading boom and raising its profit guidance well above where analysts had expected.
For the year ended 31 March, CMC Markets generated £418.7 million in total revenue, up 16%, and net operating income of £392.6 million, up 15%. Statutory pre-tax profit rose 20% to £101.3 million, while underlying EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) came in at £117.8 million, against £103.4 million a year earlier.
The profit before tax margin improved by 1.0 percentage point to 25.8%, calculated as profit before tax as a percentage of net operating income, according to the preliminary results announcement on Investegate.
What CMC Markets B2B Growth Actually Looks Like
The clearest measure of how far CMC has shifted its model is where its income now originates. The company says institutional and business-to-business platform partnerships account for most group income. CMC Connect, its institutional arm, supplies technology, liquidity, execution and post-trade support to financial institutions and fintech partners through APIs (application programming interfaces, the connectors that let software talk to software) and white-label arrangements.
Account openings through one neobank API partnership rose 2,400% in less than a year, and around 70% of those new accounts came from markets where CMC previously had little presence. Founder and CEO Lord Peter Cruddas attributed this to the B2B model itself: ‘Our B2B business model enables CMC to expand geographically.’ He added that the approach cuts the need for heavy marketing spend while offering faster payback and stronger margins than a traditional market-entry strategy.
An earnings call transcript published by Investing.com names Revolut as one of the major B2B partnerships alongside the already-disclosed Westpac and ASB Bank relationships.
The Westpac Deal and the Australian Engine
The Westpac partnership is described in the preliminary results as transformational. It covers approximately A$39 billion of assets under administration across around half a million share-trading accounts, with the integration on track to go live in 2027. For context, Westpac is one of Australia’s four largest banks, so plugging CMC’s infrastructure into that client base represents a meaningful distribution leap rather than an incremental deal.
Australia is already pulling its weight. The Australian stockbroking business recorded net operating income of A$140.3 million in the year ended 31 March, up 32% from A$106.3 million the prior year, according to CMC’s preliminary results. New Zealand is also in the frame: CMC’s ASB Bank partnership enables ASB clients to access the company’s trading technology through an ASB-branded platform, according to CMC’s FY2025 Annual Report.
Meanwhile, CMC Invest UK secured what the company calls a Tier 1 institutional partnership with a major international bank during the year, though it has not named that partner publicly.
Dividends, Earnings Per Share, and the Guidance Gap
For income investors, the headline figures translate into shareholder returns. Basic earnings per share came in at 27.5 pence for FY2026, up 22% from 22.6 pence in FY2025. The board approved a full-year ordinary dividend of 13.8 pence per share, up 21% from 11.4 pence the prior year. On a £10,000 holding at the current share price, what the dividend yields in cash terms will depend on the price you paid, but the trajectory of double-digit annual growth is consistent.
The guidance upgrade is where the story becomes harder for the market to ignore. In July, CMC raised its FY2027 net operating income guidance to at least £550 million, from a previous range of £460 million to £480 million. According to Reuters, that figure is also well above the analyst consensus of £385.5 million compiled by the company itself, suggesting the market had not priced in the B2B momentum.
Alongside the income guidance, CMC set an EBITDA target of £250 million for FY2027, while reaffirming operating expense guidance (excluding variable remuneration) at approximately £280 million, according to Proactive Investors.
The key test for investors now is whether the Westpac integration actually launches in 2027 on schedule. If it does, and the neobank partnership keeps adding accounts at anything close to recent rates, the guidance may prove conservative rather than ambitious.
