Breaking: IG Group CEO Tim Howkins Retires as Stock at All-Time Highs

Photo: Ron Finberg

After nine years as the CEO of IG, Tim Howkins has announced that he is stepping down to retire from the broker following the firm’s annual general meeting (AGM) in October. In addition to his CEO position, Howkins will also be stepping away from his Director role at the company. In his place, current COO, Peter Hetherington is being named interim CEO.

Unlike other high ranking executive changes who are often pushed out of their roles, Howkins is believed to be going out on ‘his own terms’, with company’s shares hitting an all-time high yesterday of 813.5p.

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In announcing Howkins’ retirement, IG also posted their interim annual financial results for the period ending May 31st, 2015. (Detailed report of the results here) During the year, IG reported single digit revenue growth, but a dip in reported profits. The year included the roll out of stockbroking, as IG is expanding their services to support longer term investors. However, overall profits were impacted negatively by January 15th Swiss franc volatility which led to around £30 million in losses for the broker.

Commenting about his time at IG, Tim Howkins stated publicly,“During my time at IG I have seen our business transform, as we have grown revenues from £12 million to an underlying £400 million. In my time as CEO, we have grown earnings per share from 10.88 pence to an underlying 41.07 pence, and have gone from less than 10% of our revenue coming from outside the UK to now almost 50%.”

Howkins added, “Our group now has offices in 20 countries and includes a US regulated exchange and a Swiss Bank. This has been a great team effort. I have been surrounded by an extremely talented senior management team, a number of whom have been with me throughout my tenure as CEO, and I have every confidence that this team will continue to drive the business forward with the same degree of success. I very much look forward to seeing the more recent initiatives we have started together come to fruition over the coming years.”