Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 8658R

IG Group Holdings plc

17 September 2014

 



17 September 2014

IG GROUP HOLDINGS PLC
Interim Management Statement

IG Group, a global leader in online trading, today issues the following Interim Management Statement for the period from 1 June 2014 to 16 September 2014.  Unless otherwise stated, trends and figures highlighted below refer to the three months ended 31 August 2014 - the first quarter of the company's 2015 financial year - and the corresponding period last year.

Revenue in the first quarter was £85.6 million, 9% behind the same period in the prior year.  The first three months of the company's year were particularly quiet in the financial markets, with volumes and volatility close to historic lows and the continuation of recent weakness in forex activity.  The majority of the year-on-year difference occurred in June, which was unusually strong in the prior year.

Revenue and KPIs by region were as follows:

Geographical Revenue	Q1 revenue			KPIs
	FY15	FY14	%	Active clients	Revenue per client
	£m	£m	Change
UK	45.9	47.5	(3%)	(8%)	5%
Australia	12.3	13.8	(10%)	(9%)	(2%)
Europe	18.4	20.2	(9%)	9%	(16%)
Rest of World	9.0	12.1	(25%)	1%	(26%)
Total	85.6	93.6	(9%)	(3%)	(6%)

Revenue was behind in all of the geographic regions, as the extremely quiet backdrop impacted performance.  In the UK the 8% drop in active client numbers was partially offset by an increase in average revenue per client.  In Australia revenue was 10% down on the prior year period, although flat against the fourth quarter of last year.  In Europe, even with the relatively quiet market backdrop, active client numbers grew by 9%; however, this was more than offset by the fall in average revenue per client.  In Rest of World, the continuation of weakness in the forex markets impacted Japan and Singapore, where revenue was down by around 30%; this was partially offset by strong year-on-year growth in South Africa.

In mid-September, IG launched its stockbroking offering in the UK and Ireland with a broad range of UK, US, German, Dutch and Irish equities, Exchange Traded Funds and a tax-free ISA account.  Although this may take some time to build, it has a number of significant advantages against other offerings and is a major strategic development for IG.  Also in September, the Swiss regulator issued the licence for IG's new sales office in Geneva and the company expects to begin trading there in the very near future.

Looking forward

The company will progress several initiatives through this year, as part of its long-term diversification strategy, with the aim being to make IG the default choice for active traders globally.  It will continue to develop the stockbroking offering, including adding the ability for clients to use their equity assets as collateral against shorter-term leveraged trading, and commencing a targeted international roll-out.  IG will also progress its licence application in Dubai.  The company is also applying significant effort to enhancing and maximising its mobile offering across the globe and to developing and refining its web presence.  By successfully executing on these initiatives the company believes it can deliver the next phase of its growth.

Today there will be a conference call for analysts and investors at 8.30am (UK time).  The call can be accessed by dialling [phone].  A replay of the conference call will be available for a week after the event by dialling [phone] and using passcode 4913485#, and it will be archived for access at www.iggroup.com/investors.

The next planned performance announcement from IG is the H1 pre-close trading update, currently scheduled for 25 November 2014.

For further information, please contact:

IG Group

Kieran McKinney
Head of Investor Relations          020 7573 0026

FTI Consulting

Neil Doyle / Ed Berry                     020 3727 1141 / 1046

IG is a global leader in online trading, providing fast and flexible access to over 10,000 financial markets - including shares, indices, forex, commodities and binaries.

Established in 1974 as the world's first financial spread betting firm, IG's aim is to become the default choice for active traders globally. It is already an award-winning multi-platform trading company, the world's No.1 provider of CFDs* and a global leader in forex, and it launched an execution-only stockbroking service in the UK and Ireland in September 2014.

It is a member of the FTSE 250, with offices across Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the US, where it offers limited risk derivatives contracts via the Nadex brand.

*Based on revenue excluding FX, published financial statements, July 2014.

(1)References in this statement to "revenue" refer to net trading revenue, which is trading revenue excluding interest on segregated client funds and is net of introducing broker commissions.

(2) References in this statement to active clients are to the number of clients trading during the period referred to and references to average revenue per client are to revenue for the period referred to divided by the number of active clients in that period.

 

END

 

 

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