A new website enabling users to compare and contrast financial information of Maltese-listed companies will help investors make informed decisions, according to one of its co-founders.
“Many people would like to invest but don’t know what data to look for or even where to look. Companies’ annual reports are cumbersome and it’s difficult to compare two companies side-by-side. We’re trying to change that,” said www.blackdigits.com.mt co-founder Chris Grech.
The website brings together the 33 listed companies’ financial data, allowing users to, among other things, compare balance sheets and share prices, identify company trends and easily see how leveraged companies are, that is, how much debt they use to finance their assets.
All the companies listed on the Malta Stock Exchange are included, with a drop-down menu and tick-box system guiding users to the financial data they require.
As a result, users can, for instance, compare Bank of Valletta and HSBC Malta side-by-side or delve into the past five years of a company’s financial statements and see whether it is buying up more or less risky assets.
Some 18 months in the making, all the financial data in the website was manually inputted by Mr Grech and his co-founder and fellow accountant, Calvin Bartolo.
Their vision is for listed companies and Black Digits users to eventually assume responsibility for much of the website content, turning what is effectively Malta’s first financial data comparison site into a collaborative wiki.
A few website glitches and bugs had still be ironed out, Mr Grech said, though he was confident the website would be a success.
“It’s the first such website in Malta. Everyone we’ve approached has been very enthusiastic about our idea. Now we just need people to get the word out and start using the site themselves.”
One could envisage companies being less than enthusiastic about Black Digits’ commitment to information openness, helping prospective investors compare one company’s financial figures to those of its rivals.
But Mr Grech had few such qualms. “Companies want markets to be active and liquid, with people buying and selling shares. The information Black Digits provides will make it easier for people to do so.”
Part-financed by a European Regional Development Fund grant, Black Digits is still in its infancy. Its founders, however, say they have plenty of ideas where they would like to take the site in the future.
Many of those ideas remain under wraps, but Mr Bartolo was happy to share two of them: the introduction of a star rating system and the inclusion of large Maltese companies not listed on the stock exchange.
A longer-term goal is to continue to broaden the site’s information database and allow users to better identify financial trends and correlations.
“Malta International Airport’s share price is probably related to the number of tourist arrivals in any given year. But is there a statistical correlation between the two,” Mr Bartolo posited by way of example. What was not in question was the site’s accessibility, he said. “The site is free to use. There aren’t any catches. And that’s the way we want to keep it.”