# Admirals (company)

Admirals (formerly known as Admiral Markets) is a trading platform based in Tallinn, Estonia, providing access to forex, contracts for difference (CFDs) and foreign exchange transactions across various financial markets. Established in 2003 by Alexander Tsikhilov, the company is listed on the Nasdaq Nordic stock exchange and holds 11 licenses in different countries.

## History

Admirals was established on the 26th of February, 2003, in Tallinn, Estonia, by a former engineer of Russian origin who had previously owned Admiral Telecom, an internet service provider in Russia. In the early 2000s, Tsikhilov decided to relocate his business to Europe. In 2003, he registered a security and commodity contracts broker Admiral Markets. The company secured a license from the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority, Finantsinspektsioon, in 2009.
In 2017, Admiral Markets issued public bonds but raised only €1.8 mln of the intended €5 mln. The bonds were listed on Nasdaq Tallinn's Baltic Bond List in January 2018. In 2019, the company received recognition as the Best Forex Company in Estonia from the Global Banking & Finance Awards and formed partnerships with Trading Central, Acuity and Dow Jones & Company to provide an analytics portal for its clients. According to Estonian Postimees, in H1-2020 the group generated net revenues of €9.1 mln, a sharp drop from the €31.6 mln earned in the same period last year. The company's profit of €19.1 mln, meanwhile, turned into a loss of €1.6 mln. The company was awarded ADVFN International Financial Awards in 2021.
In March 2021, Admiral Markets rebranded as Admirals and updated its logo. That same year, it was one of the first major retail brokers to end zero-fee trading policies, introducing commissions on Stock CFDs and ETF CFDs, while also banning penny stocks.
As of 2022, the company operated in 18 countries, and served clients in over 145 countries. Admirals maintained its core offices in Estonia, Jordan, Cyprus, Malaysia and UK. However, due to the war in Ukraine and subsequent European sanctions, Admirals reduced its workforce in its Minsk office from 150 to 30 employees, despite previously using this office as a key development center.
In the first half of 2023, Admirals reported reported a 51% decrease in revenue and a net loss of €4.8 mln while the operating expenses increased by 24%, marketing expenses decreased 55% and value of trade dropped 4% to €448 billion compared to the same period of 2022. The fall in trading volume occurred against the background of growth in the number of clients (according to the company's statement, by 57%). With €74.2 million in shareholders' equity, the firm's balance sheet comprised approximately 45% of liquid assets. The company withdrew its Estonian license, attributing the decision to the availability of a Cypriot license and a desire to avoid regulatory duplication, though in the past it had cited multiple licenses as an advantage.
In April 2024, following three consecutive semi-annual periods of declining revenue, Admirals suspended the onboarding European clients, citing regulatory challenges with CySEC. In H1 2024, the company reported a net loss of €1.2 million, despite a 9% reduction in operating expenses and a slight revenue increase to €22 million compared to H1 2023. In December 2024, Admirals announced the sale of its Australian subsidiary, which it had owned since 2011, to an unrelated party. Beyond Australia, the Admirals is regulated by agencies in Estonia, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Jordan, South Africa, Canada, Kenya, and Seychelles.

## Management

In 2017, Admirals underwent a management restructuring, with Jens Chrzanowski, Victor Gherbovet, and Mindaugas Deksnys joining the board, along with existing board members Sergei Bogatenkov and James Chernikov. In 2018, Stephen Ayme replaced Simon Roberts as the general manager.
By September 2022, the board was down to two members: Sergei Bogatenkov and Andrey Koks, after Chrzanowski's departure. Following a 51% revenue decline in early 2023, the company's founder Alexander Tsikhilov returned as CEO, as of March 2024, the board consists of Tsikhilov, Andrey Koks (CTO/CIO), and Anton Tikhomirov.

## Controversies

Since 2017, FCA has reported at least five cases of clone firms and websites pretending to be Admiral Markets.
In March 2020, media outlets reported that Admiral Markets was leaving the Polish market, although the company denied this, stating that its Polish branch was simply undergoing an "affiliation switch." Despite these assurances, the Polish branch closed in March 2021.
In February 2021, Admiral Markets was fined €32,000 by the Estonian regulator Finantsinspektsioon for alleged non-compliance with its investment service obligations. During the crude oil price collapse in April 2020, the company unilaterally changed terms and increased fees for overnight holdings on certain securities without prior client notification, which prompted further fines for transparency issues. The company contested the fine in court, and in 2021, the Harju County Court annulled the decision, a ruling later upheld by the Tallinn Circuit Court.
In February 2022, Admiral was fined by Finantsinspektsioon for errors in mandatory regulatory transaction reporting. Also in 2022, Admiral's founder Tsikhilov publicly criticized the Estonian government's decision to restrict IT workers from Russia and Belarus, claiming it undermined Estonia's competitiveness by creating labor shortages and driving up salaries in the tech sector.