ICAP becomes Nex as broking sales continue to fall

Yet increased banking regulation has also hamstrung that voice broking business, as deleveraging has reduced risk appetite among its customers. Continued low interest rates and lower levels of volatility in core markets have not helped, either. While a lower oil price and global economic uncertainty provided some respite, sales for the broking business fell 5 per cent to £687m on a constant currency basis. This pulled down group revenue, which fell 6 per cent to £1.2bn when including the sale of the voice broking business.

Understandably, Mr Spencer was keen to emphasise that the post-trade risk and information (PTRI) division and electronic markets businesses made up more than three-quarters of last year's £221m trading profits. The latter was the strongest performer, growing constant currency sales by 5 per cent to £245m. ICAP Information Services increased sales by 14 per cent; however this was partly driven by the decision to bill customers directly, increasing both revenue and operating expenses. Euclid Opportunities - which invests in financial technology start-ups - ploughed funds into companies including cloud-based trading communication provider Cloud9 and regulatory reporting specialist Abide Financial. This was one of the reasons the PTRI margin fell 3 percentage points to 40 per cent.

Prior to the release of these results, analysts at Numis expected adjusted pre-tax profits of £209m (up from £203m for FY2016) and EPS of 24.4p for the year ending March 2017.