Van der Moolen plans to get a licence to serve private investors in Europe, the stockbroking firm said on Tuesday evening.

The company expects it to take up to 12 months to get the licence, and is looking at either becoming a licensee itself or working with a partner.
Van der Moolen also said its full year loss last year was €77.8m, slightly less than forecast earlier and down on the 2006 figure. The company has now pulled out of some of its loss-making US activities and expects to be in profit this year.