Shares in IG rose 10 per cent to 239p after the provider of online betting services said that adjusted pre-tax profits for the year to 31 May will rise from £97m last year to £125m on the back of a rise in turnover from £184m to £257m.
Excluding the impact of FX Online Japan, which IG acquired in October, like-for-like revenue growth was 25 per cent, but this pace fell to 18 per cent in the final quarter of the year. Business at FX Online fell sharply in February as competitors started to offer more competitive spreads. However, this month FX has introduced the variable-spread model that is used elsewhere in the group. This should lead to an improvement at FX Online.
Overall, the group has performed well, with clients opening around 74,000 accounts during the year, representing a like-for-like increase in new accounts of 45 per cent. And the better performance has come despite a significant fall in financial-markets volatility in the past three months. The strong recovery in equity markets worldwide encouraged clients to do more trading. And, despite the drop in volatility, trading activity in currencies and indices remained strong.
When: 26 March 2009
Price: 182p
