New tower looms large in Europe as HFT firm triples revenues

Spire Europe, a secretive high-frequency trading firm with seven employees, almost tripled revenues and more than doubled profits last year, giving it an average revenue per head of £13.7m.

London-based Spire reported that its revenues soared from £32.1m to £96m and profits jumped from £22m to £54.1m, for the year to the end of December 2011, according to Companies House filings.

Revenue per employee rose from £5.4m in 2010 – when it had six employees – to £13.7m for the seven it has now.

In a statement accompanying the results, the directors said the firm had recently established a French branch and was focused on “enter[ing] new markets”.

Around a sixth of its revenues, or £14.4m, were generated in South America, the filings showed.

The directors said: “The management is optimistic that recent redundancies in the banking sector and current market conditions will result in good quality staff members becoming available to hire.”

Spire Europe is part of the US group Tower Research Capital, which also owns HFT firm Latour Trading.