IG Group first-half profit leaps

Spread betting firm IG Group PLC said current trading remained strong and it is confident about prospects as it posted a 34 pct rise in first half pretax earnings before interest, depreciation and amortisation to 21.4 mln stg.

IG said its UK spread betting operation grew revenues by 32 pct in the six months to November 30, higher than that seen in recent years.

The company said several factors contributed to the strong growth in the period, but it was underpinned by continuing healthy levels of new customers.

Turnover lifted 31 pct to 38.6 mln stg while pretax profits increased by 209 pct to 20.4 mln stg from 6.6 mln stg previously.

IG announced it had decided to pay a maiden interim dividend of 1.5 pence per share.

Chief executive Nat le Roux said: ‘IG has continued to deliver substantial growth in turnover and profits in the first half of the year, underpinned by consistently strong levels of client acquisition and the sustained development of our financial businesses in both the UK and Australia.

‘Current trading is strong and we remain confident about IG’s prospects.’

Spread betting allows customers to bet on changes in share prices and other securities without tying up capital.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 24th, 2006 at 8:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.