By Adam Clark

NEX Group PLC (NXG.LN) said on Tuesday that its profit rose slightly in financial 2018, as it prepares for its takeover by CME Group Inc. (CME).

The financial markets technology company said it made a pretax profit of 125 million pounds ($167.9 million) for its year ended March 31, compared with GBP122 million the prior year.

Trading profit excluding one-off items increased 9% to GBP160 million, as statutory profit was weighed down by restructuring costs.

Revenue rose 9% to GBP591 million. Revenue from NEX Markets, its trading platform arm, increased 6% to GBP326 million in constant currency. NEX Optimisation, which offers risk and post-trade services, increased revenue by 7% to GBP260 million.

NEX said it has identified an additional GBP10 million of annualized cost savings since the first half of financial 2018, bringing its total run-rate savings to an annualized GBP50 million. The one-off cost of achieving the cost cuts will be GBP19 million, NEX said.

NEX recommended a final dividend per share of 7.65 pence. This brings its full-year dividend to 11.15 pence a share, down from 38.5 pence the prior year.

Last Friday, NEX shareholders voted to approve CME's $5.3 billion takeover offer in a cash-and-shares deal. The deal is expected to be completed in the second half of 2018.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@dowjones.com; @AdamDowJones

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 22, 2018 02:42 ET (06:42 GMT)

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