By Charlie Conchie
Shares in Dutch payments giant Adyen plunged this morning despite reporting a surge in revenue in the first half of the year, as it revealed profit margins were squeezed by a jump in travel and event costs.
Processed payments surged 60 per cent to €345.8bn while revenues topped €608.5m. Profits before deductibles meanwhile hit €356.m, up 31 per cent year-on-year.
Margins were squeezed to 59 per cent however – three percentage points lower than the analyst consensus – after a surge in travel and event costs following its global company meeting in the first half of the year.
Shares plunged beyond 13 per cent on the margin miss before settling to trade down by around 11 per cent. Adyen is now trading down over 31 per cent this year amid a global rout on tech and fintech stocks.
In a letter to shareholders today, Adyen bosses doubled down on their commitment to travel, describing the firm’s global company meeting as a “particularly major moment”.
“The relationships we build face-to-face are vital to scaling our founding principles of speed, flexibility, and our singular focus on innovating to address our customers’ needs,” the firm said, adding that it will “continue this approach” going forward.
It came as the firm said it would be investing heavily in “unified commerce” as it invested in “the most advanced customer journeys” including the launch of in-house developed terminals.
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