Spread betting provider LCG today stated first-half adjusted pretax profit rose 12 per cent, helped by strong trading performance. Volatile market conditions during the second quarter helped to boost trading at the company’s core UK spread betting business, with the company reporting revenues of £20.9m for the first half of 2010, an increase of 61 per cent versus the same period last year.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue up 61% to £20.90 million (H1′09: £12.95 million)
• Trading revenue from continuing operations* up 63% to £20.82 million (H1′09: £12.76 million), as a result of more volatile market conditions in the second quarter of H1′10
• Profit before tax (excluding exceptional software impairment charges and share based payment expense) up 12% to £4.21 million (H1′09: £3.75 million)
• Net cash position increased to £14.13 million (H1′09: £8.20 million)

Strong UK Spread Betting Performance

• Total UK financial spread betting accounts up 29% to 57,890 (H1 ‘09: 45,000)
• 22% increase in average trades per day to 31,894 (H1′09: 26,208).
• Net revenue per active client increased 75% to £1,051 (H1′09: £599).

UK financial spread betting constituted 77% of Group revenue in the period (2009: 73%). Whilst revenue per client fell significantly in 2009, the period was notable for the recovery in active client numbers and funds on account from the low point of March 09 to new highs at the beginning of 2010.

The company noted that 2010 has started very encouragingly with Average Revenue per User ‘ARPU’ recovering from £599 to £1,051 and trade volumes also increasing by 22% to 31,950 per day (2009: 26,208). On their busiest day LCG processed almost 73,000 trades. White label trading volumes continue to gain ground over Capital Spreads as a consequence of their overall numbers but Capital Spreads still remains the biggest single provider generating 42% of total trade volumes.

Pretax profit for the first half fell 74 percent to 856,000 pounds due to an impairment charge of 3.2 million pounds. For the six months ended June 30, adjusted pretax profit rose to 4.2 million pounds ($6.58 million) from 3.8 million pounds a year ago.

Commenting on the results, Simon Denham, Chief Executive, said:

‘I am pleased to report that the Group enjoyed better trading conditions in the first half of 2010 and it was a period of significant developments for LCG. The continued growth in our core business as well as the launch of our CFD platforms gives us many reasons to be optimistic. Whilst we are mindful of the economic climate we are confident that our new product offerings will place LCG in a strong position for the longer term.’

Net cash resources increased 72% to £14.13m from £8.20m at 30 June 2009. Based on the results and resources available to the Group, the Board is recommending a dividend of 1p per share (2009: 2.5p).

Simon Denham, CEO of London Capital Group stated that he was optimistic due to the continued growth in the company’s core business and the launch of its Contract for Differences platforms, which allows it to diversify its customer base in the UK and internationally.

Comments: London Capital Group posted two profit warnings in 2009 but has seen better trading in the first half of the year, even posting a massive £1.8m win from a single spread better.

City spread betting company IG Group (IGG.L) have reported a marked improvement in sales through companies IG Index and IG Markets brands, as May’s market volatility continued into June and July.

Reporting on its performance in the year ended May 31, IG Group said it made a £157.6 million pretax profit, adjusted to strip out £5 million in expenses for moving offices, up 25% from £125.9 million in fiscal 2009, and inline with its estimate last month of £157 million. Revenue was £298.6 million, up 16% from £257.1 million in fiscal 2009 and meeting its £298 million guidance.

Quick Facts

• Underlying profits rose by 25% to £157.6m in the year to May, up from £125.9m, on revenues 16% higher at £299m. Pre-tax profits rose by 26% to £140.3m.
• Best performance came from Australia, with revenue increasing by over 63% from £27.9m to £45.7m driven by its CFD business.
• In Europe, revenue also grew rapidly, up 57% from £30.2m to £47.4m with Germany showing the highest growth rate.
• In the United Kingdom, growth picked up after October and in the second half of the year, revenues rose by 18% year-on-year.
• The number of financial clients dealing grew 10% to 120,689 and year-on-year partners business revenue powered ahead by 42% to £48.7m.
• There was also a big swing in the bad debt position from a £18.2m write-off in the previous year to a net recovery of £1.1m this time.

The June estimates had far outstripped analyst expectations, and in part were the result of brisk business in May, as markets went through a bout of extreme volatility from investor worries over the euro zone’s fiscal health.

After opening offices in Sweden and Portugal and a representative office in China in the previous year, IG Group said it aims to move into at least one other country this year, while also seeing prospects for strong growth in its fledgling U.S. business.

‘We are well-placed competitively and have extended our market lead in several of our key markets over the last year. We have demonstrated continued growth from our U.K. business and strong growth from both Europe and Australia, which are now businesses of significant scale. I look forward to the coming year with confidence,’ Chief Executive Officer Tim Howkins said.

He told Dow Jones Newswires the company was particularly pleased with a roughly 43% constant-currency growth rate in its Australian businesses, where it has been gaining market share from competitors and is benefiting from a broader increase in the number of people regularly taking bets on financial markets.

Howkins said the next new office will be in either Canada or the Netherlands.

IG Group is best known in the U.K. for its IG Index spread-betting operations that let people bet on stock, currency, commodity and interest rate moves. It also has major operations in Australia, Japan and continental Europe, offering contracts for differences and foreign exchange trading.

The company benefits when volatility in financial markets is high, since it encourages more trading and use of its products.

Analysts said current market conditions are ideal for the company, but that the rally in its stock price since the June trading update could lead to some profit-taking.

‘We expect strong growth to continue in the mid-term, particularly in Europe, where the offices are earlier on in their maturity profiles,’ analysts at UBS said, keeping a buy rating and 500-pence price target.

By region, the U.K. contributed £168.5 million in revenue–including a £5.9 million contribution from its sports betting business–Australia £45.7 million, Japan £23.9 million and continental Europe £47.4 million. The rest of the world, including Singapore and the U.S., accounted for about £13 million in revenue.

London Capital Group Holdings Plc (LCG.LN), the financial spread betting company behind Capital Spreads announced Wednesday for the six months ended June 30, that pretax profit and share based payment expense are expected to be in the region of £4.0 million, which is ahead of the same period last year. The firm said that following on from the second half of 2009, volatility remained subdued during the first quarter of 2010, but it picked up significantly during the second quarter which resulted in better than expected revenue.

MAIN FACTS

-This profit figure is before a previously announced exceptional impairment of capitalized software costs of £3.2 million.

-Following on from the second half of 2009, volatility remained at a low level during the first quarter of 2010, but it picked up significantly during the second quarter which resulted in better than expected revenues for the six month period to the end of June.

-The Group remains debt free and ended the 6 month period with a strong cash position.

-During the second quarter £1.8 million became due from a professional client. No provision has been made as the Directors have been advised the amount is recoverable.

-The Group’s key performance indicators continue to be robust with strong growth in client accounts, average daily trade volumes, and net revenue per active client.

The Group’s KPI’s continue to be robust with strong growth in client accounts, average daily trade volumes, and net revenue per active client. Total UK financial spread betting accounts are up 28.6% to 57,890 (2009: 45,000) average trades per day increased to 31,894 (2009: 26,208) and net revenue per active client increased 75% to £1,051 (2009: £599) for the half.

Simon Denham, CEO, commented ‘LCG has had a strong first half with very encouraging growth in overall revenue. We are also pleased to have launched two new platforms namely our Capital CFD platform and our LCG Metatrader platform targeting the international market. We look forward to the second half with anticipation for continued growth in our client base and to delivering solid second half results’.

Financial spread betting provider WorldSpreads has reported pre-tax profits of €3m for its continuing businesses for the twelve months ended 31 March 2010. This compares very favourably to the €250,000 reported on the previous year.

The company attributed its strong performance to better margins due to higher levels of international business as well as increass in average daily trades and the number of new accounts opened. Revenue jumped by 85% to just under €13m, as the company benefited from stock market volatility.

Average trades per day rose by more than 40%, while WorldSpreads also registered more than 4,000 new customers during the year. During the year, WorldSpreads sold its Irish financial spread betting business and moved to new offices in the City of London. In March 2010, WorldSpreads also launched XEQT, the Group’s new Trading Platform which has since been rolled out to all WorldSpreads’ partner websites.

During the year ended 31 March 2010, the number of new accounts opened at WorldSpreads was 4,124 (2009: 3,673), with 41 per cent of all trades and 31 per cent of trading profit was recorded from outside of the UK. Similarly, average daily trade numbers during the year were 6,148 (2009: 4,367), an increase of 41% on the same period in the previous year.

During the final quarter of the year under review, the average number of trades per day grew to 6,502 per day from 4,836 per day during the comparable period last year. The combination of the growth in these two Key Performance Indicators resulted in a significant uplift in revenue from continuing operations, which increased by 85% for the year ended 31 March 2010 to €12.89 million (£11.41 million), up from €6.96 million (£6.16 million) in the comparable period last year.

Profit for the year from continuing operations was EUR 2.25 million or 5.6 euro-cents per share versus EUR 63 thousand or 0.2 euro-cents per share for fiscal 2009.

Profit for the year from discontinued spread betting operations amounted to €3.11 million or 7.8 euro-cents, up from €1.84 million or 4.5 euro-cents in the previous year. Last April, the Group sold its sports divisions, Sports Spread Betting (Ireland) Ltd and Supreme Odds Ltd, and also its stake in the joint venture company Phumelela Gaming and Leisure Service Ltd. In December 2009, WorldSpreads had disposed off its Irish financial spread betting unit WorldSpreads Ltd.

Commenting on the results Chief Executive Officer, Conor Foley, said: ‘We are pleased to announce very positive results for the year ended 31 March 2010, the third set of annual results to be reported since the Company floated on AIM in August 2007.’

‘The year ended 31 March 2010 was a year of transition for WorldSpreads. We sold our Irish Financial Spread Betting division, we launched a new, proprietary trading platform, we appointed new staff in key positions, we moved to a new office in the City of London and we formed new key partnerships, including a revenue sharing arrangement with Ladbrokes, one of the leading brands in the UK and Europe. At the same time, we remained focused on the core elements of the business and delivered a Profit Before Tax figure on continuing operations of €3.0 million (£2.66 million), a significant increase on the €0.25 million achieved over the same period the previous year.’

The company said the proceeds from the Irish sale had placed it on the strongest financial footing of any time in its history, and it was continuing to expand in overseas markets, a key element of the Group’s strategy, protecting the Group somewhat from the uncertain economic conditions in the UK economy.

However, the company cautioned that operating margins would be ‘temporarily depressed’ as it waited to see the full benefits of its new strategy, which includes aggressive sales and marketing and investment to support the next stage of the Group’s expansion. This investment program would temporarily lower the group’s operating margins in the short-term. In particular the company pointed out that administrative expenses have gone up to EUR 6.64 million from EUR 3.69 million. The firm also indicated that current trading continues to perform in line with its expectations.

“Conor Foley, Chief Executive Officer said, “Even against the background of a very weak macro environment, current trading continues to perform in line with our expectations and the Board is confident that the Group will continue to deliver on its focused business plan to expand not only in its local UK market but also into carefully selected international markets within the EU, while continuing to explore alternatives to reduce the dependence on specific markets.”

Financial Spread Betting Division

The growth in the Group’s Financial Spread Betting Division continued to accelerate over the course of the financial period under review. Financial Spread Betting revenues grew from €6.96 million (£6.16 million) for the year to 31 March 2009 to €12.89 million (£11.41 million) for the year to 31 March 2010, an increase of 85%. This growth was experienced across all geographic regions and in particular the Group’s more profitable international regions.

The Group’s international business showed extremely positive results for the year, with revenues more than doubling from €2.14 million (£1.89 million) in the year to 31 March 2009 to €4.82 million (£4.27 million) for the year to 31 March 2010. In particular, the growth levels experienced in Spain were well ahead of management expectations as the Group is establishing a much stronger presence in the international markets.

Other Financial Derivatives Division

The Group’s Financial Derivative Division which has products such as futures, options, forex and contracts for difference (‘CFDs’) continues to deliver steady, if unspectacular, returns. While this division made a net contribution of €0.40 million (£0.35 million) during the year to 31 March 2010 (2009: €0.37 million, £0.33 million), the Board is presently reviewing it with a view to either terminating the Division or re-structuring it. A decision is expected to be reached by October, 2010. The results of this division are included in the UK spread trading division.

Balance Sheet

With net assets of €23.04 million (£20.39 million) (2009: €17.4 million, £15.40 million), of which €13m (£11.50m) (2009: €8 million, £7.08 million) is cash (excluding monies held on behalf of clients), the Group is in a strong financial position. The Group is due to receive €1.575 million (£1.39 million) in cash in December 2010 and a further €1.65 million (£1.46 million) in cash in December 2011 as the deferred proceeds of the disposal of the Irish Financial Spread Betting Division. The Group’s continued focus on small to medium sized clients and the implementation of its credit policies have ensured that the Group continues to experience low levels of unrecoverable debt.

Highlights

- Revenue from continuing operations: up 85% to €12.89m (£11.41m) (2009: €6.96m, £6.16m).
- Operating profit from continuing operations: up 666% to €3.04m (£2.68m) (2009: €0.4m, £0.35m).
- Basic EPS from continuing operations: up to 5.7 euro-cents per share from 0.2 euro-cents per share in 2009.
- Strong balance sheet with net assets of €23.04m (£20.39m) (2009: €17.4m, £15.40m) and Cash (excluding monies held on behalf of clients) of €13m (£11.50m) (2009: €8.0m, £7.08m).
- Average trades per day from continuing operations: up 41% to 6,148 (2009:4,367).
- 4,124 (2009:3,673) new clients registered in year to 31 March 2010.
- 41% of all trades (2009:29%) and 37% of trading profit (2009:31%) recorded outside the UK.
- Disposal of the Group’s Irish Financial Spread Betting Division completed in December 2009 for a total consideration in excess of €11m.
- Successful negotiation and launch of a new strategic partnership with Ladbrokes plc.

Spread betting provider IG Group Holdings PLC (IGG.LN) this morning reported that fiscal year profit will be 25% higher on the year following a spike in volatility in the forex and equity markets during the spring, when traders were grappling with the consequences of an unfolding debt crisis in Europe.

The company, which accepts spread bets on the financial markets through its flagship IG Index site allowing customers to benefit from falling as well as rising prices, said it had benefited from unstable markets in the last few weeks of the year, boosting client activity and the rate of new accounts opening. ‘The final quarter, despite starting with low levels of volatility, showed strong revenue growth, up 24 percent on the corresponding period of the previous year,’ said a company spokesman in a trading statement on Wednesday. The company added that although it is difficult to predict future trends in volatility or customer reaction to changing economic conditions, new customers are opening accounts and it is well-positioned for future growth. Account opening in the final quarter rose to 21,500 new accounts compared with 18,750 in the same period a year ago.

IG Group said it expects to report an adjusted pretax profit of roughly £157 million for the year to May 31, on revenue 16% higher at £298 million. Adjustments include a GBP5 million cost associated moving its London office, IG said.Analysts forecast fiscal-year pretax profit of between £126 million and £153 million on revenue of between £283.2 million and £298.4 million, according to FactSet.

Revenue surged 24% on year during the final quarter of the fiscal year, aided by 21,500 new accounts. UK revenue increased 17%, while final quarter revenue from IG’s Australian unit rose 65%, IG said.

It repeated its USA exchange business, Nadex, is in discussions with a number of brokers about offering clients access and efforts to connect third party trading platforms to Nadex are at an early stage.

Comments: So it appears that random movements in foreign currencies has helped to lure clients to trade more whilst also helping IG to gain new customers. It is interesting to note that on the so-called ‘flash crash’ on a particular day in May, when the Dow Jones lost 1,000 points, IG Index saw 55% more transactions than on its previous record day and a spike in account openings.

London Capital Group Holdings plc, the financial services and online spread betting company behind Capital Spreads released an RNS announcement yesterday stating that key performance indicators for the first quarter remained positive.

‘The Board says that key performance indicators for the first quarter remain positive. Furthermore, revenue has increased over the same period last year, and while there is little predictability of future earnings, the Board remains confident for the future.’

At the same time the Group has appointed Simon Denham as the new Chief Executive. He replaces Frank Chapman who will remain on the Board as a non-executive director.

Other appointments include: Rachel Woodford the former Chief Operating Officer becomes the new Group Director of Strategy and Marketing; Amanda Shields and Siobhan Moynihan join the board as Chief Operating Officer and Group Finance Director respectively.

Comments: As I write this article I see that the Capital Spreads site has been given a nice makeover…

WorldSpreads has today released a trading statement stating that the Group has continued to experience strong growth during the second half of its financial year and expects Group profit before tax for the full year to 31 March 2010 will be within the range of current analysts’ expectations.

During the year, all of the Group’s key performance indicators have continued to deliver satisfactory levels of growth across all its continuing operations. This, a company spokesman said is particularly pleasing given the lower level of market volatility that has prevailed, in contrast to the conditions of the previous year. Activity levels and account opening remained strong. Coupled with the Group’s market and technology leadership and geographic diversity, the Group is well positioned for further strong growth.

WorldSpreads has also launched a marketing campaign in the United Kingdom which has further boosted the number of new accounts. In addition, a company spokesman stated that a new and significantly improved trading platform, with better tools and trading offers, has been successfully launched. The focus still remains on retail clients in the small to medium sized trade range, in the UK and, particularly Europe although management is looking forward to launching a number of new partnership franchises in the coming months, notably the recently announced partnership with Ladbrokes.

In addition, the sale of the Group’s Irish division in December, 2009, has substantially strengthened the Group’s Balance Sheet. It is expected that the Group’s net cash position as at year end will remain strong.

FTSE Sector Reclassification

Reflecting the successful exit from the sports betting market last year and the consequent exclusive focus on financial trading, the FTSE Global Classification Committee has reclassified the Group from the “Leisure” sector to that of “Financial Services”. The reclassification became effective on 22nd March 2010.

IG Group, the powerhouse behind leading CFD and spread betting providers IG Markets and IG Index respectively reported revenue for the quarter ending February to be about £69 million pounds compared to £62 million in the corresponding quarter in the prior year of 2009.

The derivatives and margin trading provider stated that this represents an increase of approximately 11% (10% on a constant currency basis). In addition, IG’s UK, Australian, European and Singaporean divisions, taken as a whole, which businesses made 90% of the Group’s revenues in the period, experienced good growth at 29% (26% on a constant currency basis).

Operating costs were held in line with management expectations. IG managed to achieve this growth against marked lower volatility in both the security and foreign exchange markets and new client accounts openings continued apace. Excluding Japan, new account openings across the Group totalled 14,900, compared with 14,300 a year earlier. Japan had 3,200 new accounts, down from 4,600 in the same fiscal 2009 quarter.

The equity rally further helped to boost client trade through much of 2009 although this rally showed signs of weakness in the first two months of this year. IG is still having difficulties getting its Japanese division back to growth levels with revenue at £5 million for the first three months, considerably down on the £10.8 million achieved in the corresponding three months in 2009. Since IG’s acquisition of a Japanese online foreign exchange platform in 2008, competition for the Japanese’s retail foreign exchange customers has intensified, forcing IG Group to cut its margins to attract customers. Having said that a company spokesman did point out that there are signs that volume and revenue in the divisions are recovering, with revenue for February being the highest seen since last October.

IG further cautioned that it ‘remains difficult to predict future trends in volatility or customer reaction to changing market and economic conditions,’ but the ’strong account opening and the continued development of the group’s offering leave the group well positioned for further growth.’

London Capital Group PLC; the company behind Capital Spreads reported its full-year pretax profit update Thursday posting a 46% fall in full-year pretax profit as the company admitted that its trading has been hit by lower UK interest rates and increased costs to develop its trading platform despite record number of account openings.

Key Figures

- Record level of UK Financial Spread Betting (FSB) live accounts up 53% to 51,240 in 2009 (2008: 33,560)

- Record number of UK (FSB) account openings up 26% to 18,235 in 2009 (2008: 14,430)

- Record volume of UK FSB trades per month up 25% to 0.5m (2008: 0.4m)

- Total FSB client funds up 43% to £34.72m (2008: £24.22m)

- Foreign exchange client funds down 13% to £19.13m (2008: £22.01m)

- Signed five new White Label agreements including PartyGaming PLC

For the year ending December 2009, the company reported a pre-tax profit of £5.8 million compared to £10.9 in 2008. Revenue decreased 4% to £27.6 million from £28.9 million.

‘Everything so far looking good for this year. We have had a good start and we are confident of meeting those expectations,’ CEO Chapman said.

London Capital Group further announced that Chief Executive Frank Chapman intends to step down from his role taking up the position of non-executive vice chairman while Simon Denham will take the helm. The company stated that its is comfortable of meeting forward pretax profit analysts predictions of £6.5 this year, and revenues of £30 million.

The financial spread betting and trading company added that trading in 2010 has started well with all business divisions trading well mirroring more favourable market conditions and the increased client base which is boosting trading volumes. The company is also in discussions with a number of companies about its white-label service – which empowers potential partners to get into the market with minimal infrastructure costs under their own brand name, and expects another year of strong client gains. The company has reached a number of new white-label deals last years with some of the best being PartyGaming, Paddy Power and Tradefair (a division of Betfair).

The company further plans to launch a contracts for difference and Meta Trader platform in the second quarter of 2010 which would further complement the firm’s core broking, forex trading and spread betting offerings. However the planned rollout of the contracts for difference platform, coupled with increased regulatory capital requirements, has led to the waiving of the final dividend. The company stated that it has £10 million and last year had paid an interim dividend of 2.5 pence a share.

Comments: So as I long suspected lower interest rates aren’t good for LCG’s bottom line and the company has admitted that there was a cutback on rolling charge revenue on clients running positions. ‘On leveraged books, revenue at 7% (5%+2%) of net open positions in 2008 was considerably more profitable than in 2009 where only 2.5% was earned (0.5%+2%).’ However, on average 39% of total clients were active during the year and funds on account rose by 35% with average trades per day rising 14% to 23,975 (2008:20,967). This continued growth in client volumes should translate into growth in 2010 as LCG starts a fresh year with interest rates held constant throughout – this coupled with the Group’s new CFD and MetaTrader platforms, to be launched in the second quarter of 2010 should contribute positively to growth. In my book LCG remains a reasonable company which generated £6m profit in 12 months. Add to that as a blogger rightly pointed out, the company has £55m in clients cash (which in normal times would earn it some £2-2.5m pa in interest) and that this recession won’t last forever so that revenue stream should return and that management owns 40% of this company – I rate it a buy*.

* this is the author’s opinion and not a recommendation to buy.

IG Group didn’t surprise when it reported on Tuesday strong fiscal first-half results and an upbeat financial outlook for the second half. The company reported a 34% rise in first-half pretax profit (EBITBA) which was broadly in line with expectations and emphasised that the Group is well-positioned for future growth and continues to see strong activity levels and account openings in the U.K. and overseas.

For the 6 months ended November 30, IG made £78 million in pretax profit (last month the company issued a statement that this was expected to be £77 million), up from £58.2 million in the same period of fiscal 2009. First-half trading revenue was £143.8 million, in line with guidance of £143 million given in December and up 14% from £126.5 million previously led by a 65 percent jump at the company’s Australian office and a 64 percent increase at its European unit. Net income for the 6 months ended Nov 30 amounted to £50 million ($82.1 million) compared to £37.7 million pounds in the same period a year earlier. Spread betting, CFDs, binary trades and sports betting contributed £53.50 million, £83.10 million, £5.18 million, £2.96 million respectively to trading revenues. Geographically, trading revenues from United Kingdom, Australia, Europe, Japan, Rest of the world were £82.86 million, £22.20 million, £21.73 million, £10.93 million and £6.02 million, respectively.

Even more, marketing in New Zealand started up in October and the early response has been quite encouraging. Progress in Japan remains difficult but first signs suggest that IG’s market share in Japan is growing albeit slowly. Revenue from the United States markets is still very low at £1m, but chief executive Tim Howkins stated that he remains optimistic that regulatory changes will soon allow the group to offer exchange-traded contracts there. The Group’s partner franchises (white-label partners) also grew from 14 per cent to 16 per cent of group revenue.

IG Group, which opened a trading office in Sweden during the reported period, established French and Spanish operations two years ago. The Group has also opened a representative office in Beijing earlier this month (although IG stated that it won’t be offering its services in China for the present time since gambling is not allowed) and plans to open an office in Lisbon in the second half. IG also stated that it will market its offering in South Africa more aggressively and has paid GBP2 million for the client list and business of a small South African CFD partner there, Ideal CFD Financial Services (Pty) Ltd. Finally IG stated that the next logical step would be for expansion in Netherlands which the company may consider in 2011, a company spokesman said. If the new office in Sweden is successful, IG Group may consider further expansion into neighboring Scandinavian countries in 2011 or 2012. The Group is expected to add 40 to 50 staff members over the next six months.

The earnings numbers came in a little better than the company’s estimate in December and IG stated that the stock market rally is helping clients to increase their trading. A company spokesman said that the results were mainly due to strong growth Australia, continental Europe and Singapore, with the UK producing impressive results as well. British customer numbers rose by 29% in the year to November with the company continually adding an average of more than 3,000 new UK accounts, IG Group said, rejecting some analysts’ concerns that growth in the United Kingdom has peaked and company has now expanded in Europe, Australian, the United States and the Far East although the company still generating about half of its sales in Britain.

‘IG Group has again delivered record results with strong growth in both revenue and profits,’ said CEO Tim Howkins. ‘We continue to experience strong levels of activity and account opening, both in the United Kingdom and overseas, where our expansion continues. All our markets have great potential and IG is well positioned to deliver further growth.’

IG Group, which also has foreign exchange business services, announced that it will pay an interim dividend of 5p a share, which amounts to a 25% rise on last year’s 4-pence dividend for the comparable period.

IG Index keeps growing and now has some 35,000 British active clients, compared with over 1 million personal share dealing accounts across the UK which means that there are good prospects for further growth despite some analysts stating otherwise. Also, opened office in China, no doubt in a lobbying effort for a liberalisation of China’s gambling laws but big leaps in China have to be made in baby steps. IG has no debt and about £63m in cash reserves (net of client money) and bad debts are now under strict control (they were as high as £18 million last year but the amounts are now negligible) after the introduction of tighter controls that close out client contracts if they don’t address margin calls.