The directors present the strategic report for the year ended 31 December 2023.
The principal activity of the company remains that one of a commodities brokerage firm specialising in futures and options. The company is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and a regulated firm under National Futures Association (NFA) as an Introducing Broker. In 2023, the company was able to generate significant year-over-year revenue growth and invested that revenue into infrastructure and human capital in order to be able to expand into new commodities in 2023 and beyond. The expanded headcount of the company will enable increased revenue in 2024 and we believe a profitable year for shareholders in the company.
As a service provider the directors consider that the key financial risk exposures faced by the company relate to credit risk and the need to maintain sufficient liquidity to satisfy regulatory capital requirements and working capital needs. The company does not take trade positions which expose it to material price risk nor does it have a material exposure to foreign exchange movements.
The company's financial risk management objectives are therefore to minimise the key financial risks through having clearly defined terms of business with counter parties and stringent credit control over transactions with them and regular monitoring of cash flow and management accounts to ensure regulatory capital requirements are not breached and the company maintains adequate working capital.
The company's performance was considered satisfactory by the directors. The gross profit was £406,208 (2022: £23,503). At 31st December 2023 the Company has net assets of £115,463 (2022: £122,970).
The directors of the company have acted in a way that they consider, in good faith, would most likely promote the success of the company for the benefit of its shareholders, employees and customers as a whole, and in doing so, the directors have considered (amongst other matters):
The likely consequences of any decisions in the long term:
The Board takes full responsibility for all strategic matters and meets formally on a regular basis. The company is small with 2 directors and 3 employees. The 2 directors have clear areas of responsibility and maintain job descriptions and Statement of Responsibility.
The interests of the Company's employees:
As a small company with few employees all personnel are viewed as key staff. Annual appraisals provide positive feedback for personal and professional development and the company supports aspirations for further training and qualification. There exists a clear framework of policies and procedures that accord with the legal requirements around equality and diversity, regulatory responsibilities and employment rights but perhaps more importantly the firm has fostered an atmosphere in which all personnel feel comfortable to speak openly on any matter the feel they need to.
The need to foster the Company's business relationships with supplier and others:
The Company operates closely with many key suppliers in a way that they are aligned with its strategic objectives. The Board operates a risk management framework including Anti-Bribery and Corruption policies and is made aware of any significant supplier issues. Suppliers provide expertise that is not readily available in-house.
The Board retains a transparent dialogue with its regulators ensuring that they are updated as required on key strategic decisions. The Board receives regular updates on developments in financial services regulation. The regulators require compliance with their rules to ensure the integrity of the financial markets in which the Company operates.
The desirability of the Company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct:
This is demonstrated through the 'tone from the top' in how the Directors drive and support the right culture for a client facing regulated business and the how this cascades to all employees. In making board level decisions the impact on culture and the right behaviors are considered.
The need to act fairly as between shareholders of the Company:
One of the Company’s major shareholders is represented on the Board and is responsible for directing the affairs of the business and for generating a significant percentage of the Company’s revenue. The Board of the firm regularly communicate with all shareholders.
Community & Environment:
The firm takes its broader responsibilities very seriously and is looking to offer an internship programme opportunities to aspiring young graduates.
On behalf of the board
The directors present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023.
The results for the year are set out on page 8.
No ordinary dividends were paid. The directors do not recommend payment of a final dividend.
The directors who held office during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were as follows:
The Company continues to view it’s UK presence as a vital beachhead to servicing clients during European hours. As such, it has invested heavily in infrastructure ensuring that the Company will have the proper support for future expansion. The Company seeks to expand its product offering beyond agricultural derivatives and into other commodities to meet the widening demands of existing clients. The Company has already seen strong year-over-year growth in revenue and expects that 2024 will improve profitability over previous years. The primary headwind to that would be one-off acquisition costs to bringing on significant revenue producers to the firm, which the Company believes would be extremely accretive to shareholders in the long term.
Fisher, Sassoon & Marks were appointed as auditor to the company and in accordance with section 485 of the Companies Act 2006, a resolution proposing that they be re-appointed will be put at a General Meeting.
As the company has not consumed more than 40,000 kWh of energy in this reporting period, it qualifies as a low energy user under these regulations and is not required to report on its emissions, energy consumption or energy efficiency activities.
Basis for opinion
Conclusions relating to going concern
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the directors' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:
the information given in the strategic report and the directors' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
the strategic report and the directors' report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
As explained more fully in the directors' responsibilities statement, the directors are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the directors determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the directors are responsible for assessing the company's ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the directors either intend to liquidate the company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud.
the engagement partner ensured that the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence, capabilities and skills to identify or recognise non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
we identified the laws and regulations applicable to the company through discussions with directors and other management, and from our commercial knowledge and experience of the financial services sector;
we focused on specific laws and regulations which we considered may have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the company, including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Companies Act 2006, taxation legislation, anti-bribery, anti-money-laundering, employment;
we assessed the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations identified above through making enquiries of management and inspecting legal correspondence; and
identified laws and regulations were communicated within the audit team regularly and the team remained alert to instances of non-compliance throughout the audit.
We assessed the susceptibility of the company’s financial statements to material misstatement, including obtaining an understanding of how fraud might occur, by:
making enquiries of management as to where they considered there was susceptibility to fraud, their knowledge of actual, suspected and alleged fraud;
considering the internal controls in place to mitigate risks of fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations; and
understanding the design of the company’s remuneration policies.
To address the risk of fraud through management bias and override of controls, we:
performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships;
tested journal entries to identify unusual transactions;
assessed whether judgements and assumptions made in determining the accounting estimates as set out in note 2 were indicative of potential bias; and
investigated the rationale behind significant or unusual transactions.
In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, we designed procedures which included, but were not limited to:
agreeing financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;
reading the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance;
enquiring of management as to actual and potential litigation and claims; and
reviewing correspondence with HMRC, relevant regulators including the FCA and reviewing the company’s compliance monitoring procedures and findings.
There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the audit procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any. Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or through collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the company's members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The profit and loss account has been prepared on the basis that all operations are continuing operations.
Stag Securities Limited is a private company limited by shares incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is 43 - 45 Dorset Street, London, W1U 7NA.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the company. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Other financial assets, including investments in equity instruments which are not subsidiaries, associates or joint ventures, are initially measured at fair value, which is normally the transaction price. Such assets are subsequently carried at fair value and the changes in fair value are recognised in profit or loss, except that investments in equity instruments that are not publicly traded and whose fair values cannot be measured reliably are measured at cost less impairment.
Financial assets are derecognised only when the contractual rights to the cash flows from the asset expire or are settled, or when the company transfers the financial asset and substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership to another entity, or if some significant risks and rewards of ownership are retained but control of the asset has transferred to another party that is able to sell the asset in its entirety to an unrelated third party.
Financial liabilities and equity instruments are classified according to the substance of the contractual arrangements entered into. An equity instrument is any contract that evidences a residual interest in the assets of the company after deducting all of its liabilities.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors, bank loans, loans from fellow group companies and preference shares that are classified as debt, are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of business from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Derivatives, including interest rate swaps and forward foreign exchange contracts, are not basic financial instruments. Derivatives are initially recognised at fair value on the date a derivative contract is entered into and are subsequently re-measured at their fair value. Changes in the fair value of derivatives are recognised in profit or loss in finance costs or finance income as appropriate, unless hedge accounting is applied and the hedge is a cash flow hedge.
Debt instruments that do not meet the conditions in FRS 102 paragraph 11.9 are subsequently measured at fair value through profit or loss. Debt instruments may be designated as being measured at fair value through profit or loss to eliminate or reduce an accounting mismatch or if the instruments are measured and their performance evaluated on a fair value basis in accordance with a documented risk management or investment strategy.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the company’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
Equity instruments issued by the company are recorded at the proceeds received, net of transaction costs. Dividends payable on equity instruments are recognised as liabilities once they are no longer at the discretion of the company.
In the application of the company’s accounting policies, the directors are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
The directors do not consider there to be any critical judgements or key sources of estimation uncertainty involved in the preparation of the company's financial statements.
The average monthly number of persons (including directors) employed by the company during the year was:
Their aggregate remuneration comprised:
The actual charge for the year can be reconciled to the expected credit for the year based on the profit or loss and the standard rate of tax as follows:
The company has tax losses carried forward as at 31st December 2023 of £293,860 (2022: £151,840). A deferred tax asset has not been recognised in respect of the losses due to the uncertainty as to the timing of future taxable profits.
The company operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the company in an independently administered fund.
During the year 127,873 Ordinary Shares of £1 each were allotted and fully paid at par for cash consideration to provide additional working capital.
Full right to receive notice of attend and vote at general meetings. Once shares carries one vote and full rights to dividends and capital distributions (including upon winding up).
At the reporting end date, the company had outstanding commitments for future minimum rental licence payments under the contact. The amount due within one year £13,500 (2022: £1,800).
The remuneration of key management personnel is as follows.
The company has taken the advantage of exemption,under the terms of Financial Reporting Standard 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland', not to disclose related party transactions with Wholly owned subsidiaries with in the group.