IG Group lifts Q1 revenue 28 percent
September 9, 2009admin No Comments »Financial spread betting specialists IG Group has recorded revenues of £68m for the three months ended 31 August, a 28% increase on the £53m recorded in the same quarter last year, it revealed this morning.
IG stated that new account openings, a key KPI indicator of future growth remains strong. IG said, during the period, it opened over 21,000 financial accounts, an increase of 72 percent on the number opened in the same period last year.
Excluding its move into the Japanese forex market, IG said its organic growth in the three months was 17%. Even in its most mature market in London, revenues were up 4% year on year to £39 million. The revenue from the Australian division also experienced healthy growth up 50 per cent year on year to £10m while the newer and much smaller offices in Europe, Singapore and the US were up 80 per cent to a total of £11m.
FXOnline, the group’s Japanese division which had revenue of 6 million pounds during the period (i.e. flat growth) has continued to underperform but IG has continued diversifying its product mix away from the local very competitive foreign exchange market towards CFDs and other area where there is less competition.
The group said its new financial year had started well, despite subdued forex and equity market volatility.
However, it said it faces more challenging comparatives in the second quarter, as both revenue and account opening last year were boosted by the volatility in the markets during September and October in the midst of the global banking crisis.
“It remains difficult to predict future trends in volatility or customer reaction to changing market and economic conditions,” IG said. “Strong account opening and the continued development of the group’s offering leave the group well positioned for future growth.”
Considering that we are in a recession this update from IG Index is quite good; in fact the growth factor makes for pretty good news in a boom as well! The only question mark seems to be Japan where IG state that they are experiencing a ‘challenging environment for forex’ which is rhetoric for ‘lousy’. It is interesting to note that IG Index has stated that spread bettors have switched from betting on forex to trading shares in the recent stock market upswing. The typical punter is in his/her mid to late-thirties and most likely in a managerial or professional role – speculating as part of his/her wider investment portfolio. About half of IG’s revenue now derives from selling CFDs and other financial derivatives outside the UK which can only be positive as IG shifts its dependence away from the mature local UK market
Join the discussion