Exchange operator Cboe Global Markets (Cboe) released its financial results for 2018 this Friday. The company saw a sizeable uptick in revenues last year when compared to 2017.

The exchange operator reported total revenue of $2.77 billion last year. That was a 24 percent increase on 2017 when the firm finished the year with $2.23 billion in revenue.

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Cboe’s growth was largely down to an uptick in revenue drawn from transaction fees.

Over the course of 2017, the firm was able to rake in $1.56 billion from those fees. Last year, they brought in $1.99 billion – a 28 percent increase on 2017.

Reflecting the rise in revenues was an increase in the company’s business costs. In 2018, business costs rose to $1.55 billion, a 26 percent increase on the prior year’s $1.23 billion.

Cboe liquidity payments up

That growth was largely due to a $261 million increase in the amount Cboe spent on liquidity payments, which rose to $1.11 billion, in 2018.

Other expenditure, including wages, technology support, and facilities costs, remained fairly constant compared to 2017.

In 2018, those expenses amounted to $617.5 million. That was just less than the $623.7 million that the firm spent in 2017.

Thus, Cboe was able to report a pre-tax income of $599.4 million. That was a 61 percent increase on the $334.4 million that the firm reported in 2017.

But, due to taxation, the firm won’t be seeing a large uptick in its actual profit for the year.

That’s because, in 2017, the firm was given a $66.2 million tax rebate, which meant the firm finished the year with $400.6 million in net income.

Sadly for Cboe, this year their tax bill was equal to $146 million. That meant the firm had net income of $425.2 million – still an increase on last year but one that does not reflect the performance of the company last year.