Hello, everyone, welcome to the Plus500 preliminary results for 2022. My name is Nadia, and I'll be coordinating the call today. If you would like to ask a question at the end of the presentation, please press Star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand over to your host, David Zruia, CEO of Plus500 to begin. David, please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. I'm David Zruia, Plus500 CEO, and I'm joined by Elad Even-Chen, our Group CFO. Thank you for joining us today. Turning to slide 2, the agenda for today. Once the presentation is over, we will be happy to take your questions. I will start today with a brief overview of our track record, current position, and a summary of our 2022 results. This year, we are celebrating our 10th anniversary as a publicly listed company, and this next slide outlines our strong track record since our IPO in 2013. Today, Plus500 is a premium-listed FTSE 250 company with a market cap of approximately $2 billion compared to a market cap of $200 million in the year of our IPO.
To our exciting journey, we have maintained an extremely strong financial position, remaining completely free of any debt or loans and producing an outstanding record of operating cash conversion. In the IPO year of 2013, revenue was $150 million, and in full year 2022, revenue was over $830 million, which has been driven by our unique proprietary technology and best-in-class offering, supported by the continued growth of our customer base, and this has helped to produce an average annual EBITDA margin of approximately 57% and $2.3 billion of accumulated net profits since 2013. The $2.9 billion of cash generated since our IPO in 2013 has enabled us to return a total of $1.7 billion to shareholders in that time.
Plus500's performance in 2022 further added to our already strong track record. Our portfolio now comprises of three distinct product categories, and we have a significant future growth potential compared to three years ago when our new strategic plan was announced. We now have 12 international operating licenses, 24 million registered customers, nearly $1 billion in cash as the Group's own funds as at the end of last year, a diverse range of products, market leadership position in key strategic markets, and over 500 employees around the world. These metrics highlights that Plus500 continues to go from strength to strength, delivering substantial growth and value for our shareholders. Slide six shows the key drivers behind our outstanding performance during the year.
We delivered growth in all financial metrics compared with full year 2021, including 16% revenue growth, 17% EBITDA growth, EBITDA margin growth to 55%, 25% earnings per share growth, and 24% growth in our cash balance at the end of the year. We made huge strategic progress last year in further developing our position as a global multi-asset fintech group, particularly in evolving our position in the U.S. futures market. Our strategic objectives continue to be driven by investments, both organic and through targeted acquisitions, and supported by our powerful proprietary technology and our continued focus on innovation. From a governance perspective, our board was further diversified during the year from a gender perspective, and 50% of our board members are women.
We remain very active supporting a number of stakeholders in the local communities in which we operate, and we continue to make donations to these communities and to a variety of charitable organizations. We also continue to place significant focus on providing our customers with the various educational content and risk management tools. Importantly, we consistently ensure that Plus500 remains an attractive and rewarding workplace for our talented team members, further embedding our high-performance organizational culture. On to the next slide, which summarizes Plus500's exciting position as a global multi-asset fintech group. We have a very strong track record of growth and value delivery, which is primarily due to the strength and capabilities of our proprietary technology. This has enabled us to drive diversification across our product portfolio, our geographic footprint, and our revenue stream.
With the reinforced financial foundation, which has enabled organic investment, targeted acquisition, and driven highly attractive shareholder returns, Plus500 is extremely well-positioned to access a range of major growth opportunities. Taking a closer look at our proprietary technology on slide eight. Our technology powers our operations and trading platforms and is supported by an industry-leading full-stack R&D team. We have continuously driven technological innovation to provide our customers with the best-in-class trading experience. Our proprietary risk management framework is embedded within our technology platform with real-time functionality. This supports our product portfolio, which is being upgraded and developed in real time on the basis of data analytics and customer feedback. Over the years, we have developed and continue to develop unique technologies which are based on AI and big data. These technologies allows us to execute technological marketing initiatives.
Over the years, we have developed and continue to develop unique technologies which are based on AI and big data. These technologies allows us to execute technological marketing initiatives and together with additional recently developed technologies, enables the retention, activation, and monetization of a substantial customer base. Our customer-centric mindset has driven a continuous upgrade of our customer training and education tools and an industry-leading customer service with 24/7 availability. With our proprietary technology providing a firm operational and commercial foundation, we have a clear strategic roadmap which we are delivering against. We will continue to enter new markets, launch new products, expand our product offering in existing markets, and deepen our engagement with customers, which will deliver growth and value for the business and our shareholders. I will now hand over to Elad, who will discuss our operational performance during the year.
Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. We delivered an excellent set of results in 2022, well ahead of market expectations at the start of the year. Our performance was again driven by Plus500 unique proprietary technology tech proposition, which enables our ongoing ability to attract and retain higher value customers over the long term. Our strong performance delivered a number of important outcomes, with customer deposits growing to $2.3 billion and a record high average deposit per active customer of approximately $8,000, highlighting consistently high customer loyalty and confidence in our product.
As a Plus500 Group, we continue to lead the mobile and tablet space in 2022, with over 85% of our OTC revenue being generated from customers which use our OTC platform on mobile or tablet devices, and over 82% of OTC customer trades took place on mobile or tablet devices. This highlights our unique market leadership position and our continued focus on innovation in this area. On the next slide, I will cover our substantial and exciting growth opportunities in the U.S., which is a major new market for Plus500. Within the U.S., there is a substantial and multidimensional potential customer base for us to target with our new range of features and options in futures products.
In terms of our progress so far in delivering against this opportunity, Plus500 has already established a strong and growing position in this substantial market, supported by our best-in-class technology and our robust financial position. We're targeting several significant growth opportunities in the US, and to this end, we made an excellent progress in 2022. We also developed a new line of business, specifically a B2B offering and a strategic position as a market infrastructure provider with a view to delivering brokerage execution and clearing services for institutional clients. Our future progress in the institutional market will be supported by a reputable proprietary technology for futures and options in futures. Our proposition in this exciting new line of business was further strengthened by our position as a full clearing member of the CME Group exchanges and the Minneapolis Exchange, which were achieved during the year.
These memberships further strengthen our commercial proposition and help to build our profile in the U.S. market. We made continued progress in expanding our clearing capabilities with other exchanges in the global futures sector. During Q3 2022, we launched a new B2C proprietary trading platform, TradeSniper, an intuitive futures trading platform tailored for the sizable and addressable U.S. retail futures community. TradeSniper ensures we have a highly differentiated technology-based proposition in this market with high levels of automation and technological integration. TradeSniper's fully holistic solution includes a range of features that are available for the first time for retail customers in the U.S. futures market.
To finish on this slide, we will continue to allocate substantial financial and personnel resources to maximize these significant opportunities in the U.S. over the medium and long term. We delivered outstanding financial results last year, as shown on slide 13. Total revenue was up by 16% to $833 million. EBITDA increased by 17% to $454 million, and EBITDA margin grew to 55%. This drove cash conversion to 112%, helping us to end the year with cash balances of $930 million.
We continue to manage our financial position, balance sheet, and cost base in a responsible manner, measuring the performance of our financial position against a range of internal benchmarks and KPIs. Plus500 continues to hold no debt or loans, has a flexible and lean cost base, which is predominantly weighted to variable costs and financial expenses, which have a relatively low exposure to the current macro inflationary environment. This financially responsible culture and approach embedded within the group continues to enable our focused strategic investment and ultimately our strong financial performance. Our active customer base remained robust at over 280,000, with more than 106,000 new customers onboarded during the year. This was driven by continued significant investment in our cutting-edge proprietary marketing technology, which helped us to continue to attract and onboard a strong level of new customers with substantial long-term value.
Average revenue per user reached a record annual high of nearly $3,000, driven by our differentiated technology offerings. On the next slide, you can see that we offer our customers a range of trading products, including our market leading and long-standing OTC products and our new and exciting products in share dealing, as well as futures and options and futures. Through our OTC product portfolio, we offer 2,500 different underlying global financial instruments across more than 50 countries and in 30 languages. During the year, our proprietary share dealing platform, Plus500 Invest, was launched in Europe on Android and iOS mobile app. This product helped to drive the expansion of our product range and geographic footprint, as well as improving customer retention and further diversifying our revenue base. Our trading platform operates on a 24/7 basis so that our customers have a consistent and seamless service.
In line with our plan to incrementally invest approximately $50 million in our R&D capabilities between the year of 2021 and 2023, we continue to invest in product development and innovation to further deepen customer engagement, including through continued recruitment at our R&D centers in Israel. This new innovation includes +Insights, which was launched during the year on our OTC trading platform as a complimentary service for customers across its web app, iOS and Android offerings. +Insights is a new proprietary big data analytical tool designed to provide customers with an access to real-time and historical trends based on the group's customer base. On the next slide, we continue to be successful in achieving market-leading position in key strategic markets for our OTC product offering.
We were again ranked as the number one provider in the U.K., Germany, and Spain, achieving market-leading position in key strategic markets for our OTC product offering. We were again ranked as the number one provider in the U.K., Germany, and Spain by Investment Trends in their 2022 leveraged trading reports. We believe that this consistent performance over time is an amazing achievement and a testament to the power of our technology and the high quality of our people. I will now hand back to David.
Thanks, Elad. On the next slide, the cumulative average revenue from active customers who first deposited in 2016 was over $5,000 as at the end of 2022. This highlights the longevity and sustainability of our customer base, driven by our diversified marketing approach and enabled by our proprietary technology. Last year, we continued to diversify our marketing approach, investing in 2 major marketing initiatives to build brand awareness in key strategic markets. Firstly, we launched a major global advertising campaign featuring actor Kiefer Sutherland, and secondly, we established a multi-year global sponsorship agreement with the iconic Chicago Bulls NBA team.
The long-term loyalty of our customers is further highlighted on slide 18, where you can see that 87% of OTC revenue during the year was derived from customers trading on the group's OTC trading platform for more than one year, 40% for more than three years, and 24% for more than five years. This customer longevity is a consequence of our continuous investment in our product offering, our consistently innovative mindset, and our ongoing customer-focused approach. These factors have helped to drive support and loyalty from a range of high-value customers over the long term. The next slide shows the returns we have achieved from our investment in marketing technology, with each bar chart showing cumulative returns from annual customer cohorts.
For example, the graph on the left shows that we have generated revenue of $459 million from customers registered during 2018 from the marketing investment of $125 million made in that year. That is more than 3.5x . I will now hand back to Elad to cover regulation and our financials for the year.
Thank you, David. We have a robust regulatory framework in place to enable growth and to ensure we remain aligned with the relevant regulatory requirements in which we operate and offer our products. Our portfolio of licenses is a valuable asset and a key differentiator for Plus500. Within the last couple of years, we have added a new license in the U.S. through an acquisition. We're one of around 60 regulated futures commission merchants in the U.S. future market. Within that group, we're one of a small group of regulated FCMs with full clearing memberships of various exchanges, which ensures we have a highly valuable, independent, and unique proposition. Our position is further strengthened for our customers as a result of our technological capability and robust balance sheet.
We also completed the acquisition of a regulated entity in Japan last year, for which integration plans are progressing well. Over time, this will enable us to grow our local market position in the substantial Japanese trading market, where we will apply our considerable technological capabilities and financial strength. In both the U.S. and Japan, the acquired companies have held regulatory licenses for a number of years. In addition, we have added new licenses through regulatory applications. For example, in the Seychelles and Estonia. We're also excited with our viewers. In addition, we have added new licenses through regulatory applications, for example, in the Seychelles and Estonia.
We're also excited with our most recent license, which we obtained earlier this month from the DFSA in the UAE, offering a major potential growth opportunity for Plus500 by allowing us to expand our offering to customers in significant and high-growth markets. This license is the latest realization of our strategy to enter new markets, develop new products, and deepen engagement with our customers. Through these licenses, we will continue to serve the needs of our business as we continue to expand into new geographies and products. In addition, our portfolio of licenses, many of which are now unique and can be somewhat time-consuming and costly to obtain, is a very valuable asset for Plus500. Furthermore, our regulatory framework is a barrier to entry for new entrants and is therefore an important differentiator for Plus500.
Now moving to the financial overview, starting on slide 22 with the income statement for the period. Our strong revenue growth in 2022 was driven by consistent delivery of customer income and high level of customer trading performance, which we continue to expect to be neutral over time. This resulted in robust EBITDA growth, which was also supported by our efficient and flexible cost base, which is shown on the next slide. It is worth noting that net financial income was at the level of $23.9 million compared to $1.8 million in the prior year. This major achievement was delivered by the high-quality treasury capabilities, supported by the development in the global interest rate environment. Overall, we continue to invest in future growth while maintaining strong cost control, with costs increasing at a lower rate than revenue.
This financial flexibility, with 70% of our costs being variable during the year, is another key financial strength of Plus500 in an uncertain and dynamic economic environment. Marketing investments remain relatively elevated to help us capture attractive ROI over time. Commissions to processing companies continue to be driven by high levels of customer deposits, highlighting continued customer confidence in Plus500. The increase in payroll and related expenses was driven by additional recruitment of a range of highly skilled technology experts who are helping to further scale up and develop our technological capabilities. Other costs include expenses related with the U.S. operation and costs relating to the one-time brand campaign with Kiefer Sutherland. Turning to the balance sheet on slide 24. Our business has never incurred any debt or loans, and our balance sheet remains in an extremely good shape.
Plus500 therefore remains in an excellent position to continue to invest in growth opportunities and business continuity, especially during the current macroeconomic environment. Slide 25 covers the cash flow. With cash generated from operations of $506.8 million during the year and after returning $258.7 million to our shareholders, of which $119.9 million through dividends and $138.8 million in share buyback, cash and cash equivalents balances at the end of the year increased significantly to $930.2 million. Plus500 remains extremely cash generative with low level of capital expenditure due to our automated processes in $2 million. Plus500 remains extremely cash generative with low level of capital expenditure due to our automated processes and technological capabilities.
This drove operating cash conversion of 112% during the year. I will now discuss our approach to capital allocation on slide 26. The board has a clear capital allocation framework based on an ongoing assessment of the availability of access capital going forward, which ensures there continues to be an optimal balance between shareholder returns, investment in future growth, and in driving business continuity over the long term. In particular, the board will continue to ensure that appropriate levels of available capital are maintained for required working capital and other factors to drive future growth. We estimate that our current board mandate required capital is approximately at the level of $550 million.
Our surplus capital, which was around $380 million at the end of the year, will continue to be used to invest in future growth, including through targeted acquisitions and in returns to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends. I will cover shareholder returns on slide 27. In our 10th anniversary year, since our IPO in 2013, Plus500 has delivered a consistently outstanding performance, returning approximately $1.7 billion to shareholders, representing approximately 74% of the cumulative net profits we have generated during that time. Our shareholder returns policy is to return at least 50% of net profits to shareholders through share buyback programs and dividends, with at least 50% of this distribution to be made by way of share buybacks.
This policy applies to net profits on a half yearly basis and is based on a 23% corporate tax rate for both interim and final distribution. The board will also consider executing special share buybacks or other distributions on a half yearly basis. In relation to the year of 2022, the company returned $270.2 million to its shareholders, including $180.2 million in share buyback and $90 million in dividends. This includes $100 million of total shareholder returns announced today, including $70 million in share buybacks and $30 million in dividends. The share buybacks announced today include a final buyback program to purchase up to $42.4 million of the company shares, and a special buyback program to purchase up to $27.6 million of the company's shares.
The total dividend for the year of $90 million included a final dividend of $20 million and a special dividend of $10 million, both declared today, as well as an interim dividend of $60 million, which was paid in November 2022. The final and special dividends have an ex-date of 23rd February with a record date of February 24th and a payment date of July 11th. These programs will commence following the completion of the current share buyback program of $60.2 million announced in August 2022. The company also completed a special buyback program of $50 million announced in April 2022. During the course of the company also completed a special buyback program of $50 million announced in April 2022 during the course of 2022.
During 2022, the company purchased approximately 6.9 million shares at a cost of $138.8 million, which represent approximately 6% of the company's issued share capital. I will now hand back to David.
Thank you, Elad. Let's now look at the outlook on slide 29. Based on our significant progress over recent years and our reinforced financial position, the board remains confident about the group's future prospects. Plus500 remains well-positioned to access a range of significant opportunities to grow and diversify its revenue streams, geographic footprint, and business model. These growth opportunities will be accessed by our ongoing investment in developing our position as a global multi-asset fintech group through further organic investment and by actively targeting additional acquisitions. For 2023, the board expects our performance to be in line with current market expectations, which are detailed on our investor relations website. We continue to expect to deliver sustainable growth over the medium to long term. We will now be happy to take your questions.
Feel free to ask us questions over the phone or post them on the webcast facility. Thank you.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question today, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypads. If you choose to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. Our first question today goes to Ian White of Autonomous Research. Ian, please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi. Morning. Thanks for doing the, thanks for doing the presentation. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple from me, please. First of all, just on, just on capital, can you just explain to me, please, what's driven the tweak in your, risk appetite again to $550 million? I wonder if the targeted, cash buffer might actually come lower, given that you're guiding to, revenues that are, sort of quite significantly lower than we've seen over the last few years. I know you used to say, I think, that $150 million-$200 million was needed. Can you just help me a bit with the moving parts there, please?
Secondly, could you provide some specific financial details or KPIs around the U.S. operation at all? I just wondered if maybe on the B2C side, you know, how many clients have traded and what's the total revenue contribution at this stage? Also, am I right to think there's a chunk of B2B revenue currently reported within rest of world on slide 14? How much is that, please? Thank you.
Hi, Ian. Good morning. How are you? It's Elad. As for the first question, for the capital allocation, very much over the last few years, we're guiding the market to the number that we as a board we feel comfortable with. We should remember that that number is not a regulatory capital per se. The regulatory capital is the baseline, and from that, kind of figure, we are increasing the amount in order to cater the working capital of the company, the risk management, and so on. As for kind of the tweaked number, very much we're progressing, as you just said, also with the U.S. expansion, also by catering additional customers there from the institutional side with the IB area and so on. One drives the other.
One drives also the need to bring more capital at home in order for the company and its shareholders and the stakeholders to feel comfortable that the balance sheet is strong and solid enough. That is why we increased it by a small number. Very much we will continue to assess that number on the go, based on the actual performance of the company. With respect to the second question, I would say that Plus500 has released its retail proprietary technology TradeSniper platform only in last September.
It means that the marketing and the performance itself is just at the initial stage with the soft launch. Very much, we'll see an updated, another kind of launch of our proprietary technology for the retail community in the next couple of months. From there, we will continue to assess the performance and guide the market as may be applicable. As for the third question with respect to the numbers included within the other, I can very much say that also the U.S., as you've indicated, is included within the other portion. As before, nothing is special for today. Numbers, of course, only whatsoever they are public, we can also refer to on this specific call.
Okay, thank you. Maybe just one follow-up on the capital please, if that's okay. Am I right to think that absent a material change in the revenue generation from the $605 million that you're acknowledging today for FY 2023, that $550 is broadly fixed? I know you said that it sounds like it's geared more into the U.S. B2B business. Am I thinking on the right lines there, or should we expect to see sort of further ratcheting of that requirement over that internal appetite over the next year, 18 months?
Generally, I would say, your understanding is correct, but of course, one drives the other, right? As for the business to potentially come, the nature of the business and the increased level of business which may be applicable, natural hedging which may take place, and so on. There are a lot of parameters that need to be taken into consideration. Based on that, the board will of course assess and come to the market with the relevant number.
Okay. Thanks a lot.
Pleasure.
Thank you. We have no further questions. I'll hand back to you, David, for any closing remarks.
Thank you for your questions. Just to sum up, Plus500 delivered another outstanding performance during 2022, and supported by our reinforced financial position and ongoing investment in growth, we remain extremely well positioned for the future. We'd like to thank you once again for taking the time to be with us today. Bye-bye.