At one point they were growing quickly, and it was very interesting. But when RBA cut down to 0.1%, it impacted the financial balance, and it became a waiting game to when RBA would start raising again.
RBA eventually did start raising again, but by that time, staff expenses had gotten out of hand, and a few failure feature releases happened. Combined with competitors undercutting (Stake mainly, with their large private equity raised war chest).
RBA raised so much, that it created some economic pressure, and suppressed demand for sharemarket investing. Possibly this is a time for restrained staff expenses, and particularly not throwing money away on expensive marketing.
At least we're cashflow positive, but it has not exactly been managed optimally. Some obvious things, like wasted marketing spend, high staff costs, and features they didn't even seem to have been beta tested and reviewed as positive by users before release.
With Datt having some control now, I'd say his money is where his mouth is. He'd be one to avoid unnecessary wastage, but also may have a medium term outlook of growth, so not necessarily an immediate term focus on maximizing cashflow.
Datt is not a 'professional manager' thrown into the niche brokerage industry, but a fund manager who believes in the company, and will be focused on optimising its future. Very aligned interests with shareholders.
What should the company do at a time of suppressed market interest? (Satisfying customers is the obvious one, with proper management of feature releases). But 'trades growth' and 'user growth' is not very realistic at the moment. Though there might be some useful innovation possible in the meantime.
With trading activity being suppressed, now is a time that offering lower brokerage prices has less impact on the bottom line, as more income is from interest currently. I'm not sure whether that is a good idea, but it's less costly than previously.
SWF Price at posting:
14.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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