IG Group Holdings (LSE: IGG) posted record total revenue of £1.12 billion for calendar year 2025, driven by double-digit growth in net trading revenue and a surge in new customer acquisition, fuelled by the Freetrade integration.
The London-listed trading and investment platform also launched a strategic review that could reshape its ownership structure, listing venues and corporate composition, with results expected in autumn 2026.
IG Group’s Revenue Record, but Margin Slips
Net trading revenue for the twelve months to 31 December 2025 reached £1,004.6 million, a 10% increase on the £910.6 million recorded in calendar year 2024. That prior-year performance had already impressed analysts, with IG beating estimates in FY25 as net profit jumped 24% to £380 million, making the CY25 record all the more notable for being built on an already-strong base.
That growth, however, came alongside a 16% drop in net interest income, which fell from £141.6 million to £118.8 million, as declining benchmark interest rates reduced the yield on client cash balances while pass-through to customers increased.
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Net interest income's share of total revenue fell from 14% to 11%, reflecting a deliberate business model shift toward fee and trading-based income. EBITDA edged up just 1% to £531.1 million, while the EBITDA margin contracted from 49.9% to 47.3%, as the group reinvested efficiency savings back into marketing and product development.
"Record financial results and accelerating customer growth demonstrate the strength of IG's platform," Breon Corcoran, the CEO of IG Group, said, "We operate in large and fast-growing markets being reshaped by structural drivers, and now is the time to raise our ambitions. Today we are launching a strategic review to ensure IG captures the full long-term opportunity ahead - evaluating routes to maximise shareholder value."
The Numbers Behind the Headline
Beyond the top line, several operational and cost metrics reveal the true shape of IG's 2025 performance. Marketing spend rose 31% to £108.8 million, a deliberate acceleration designed to drive customer acquisition and fund new product launches. Legal and professional costs surged 78% to £62.3 million, reflecting M&A advisory fees, technology consulting and early-stage work on the company's legal entity structure.
The table below offers a broader comparative view of IG's key performance indicators across calendar year 2025 and calendar year 2024, cutting past the headline revenue figures.
KPI | CY25 | CY24 | Change |
Total Revenue | £1,123.4m | £1,052.2m | +7% |
Net Trading Revenue | £1,004.6m | £910.6m | +10% |
Net Interest Income | £118.8m | £141.6m | -16% |
EBITDA | £531.1m | £525.0m | +1% |
EBITDA Margin | 47.3% | 49.9% | -2.6pp |
The adjusted EPS growth of 5% - from approximately 109.8 pence to 115.3 pence - was supported by ongoing share buybacks that have reduced the share count by over 16% since May 2022.
The 29% leap in basic EPS to 130.0 pence is more eye-catching, but that figure includes a one-off £76.0 million gain from the disposal of Small Exchange to Kraken in a $100 million deal completed in October 2025. Strip that out and the underlying earnings picture is more measured.
Customer Growth: Real and Acquired
The reported 174% surge in active customers from 270,300 to 742,100 is almost entirely explained by the acquisition of Freetrade, which was consolidated from 1 April 2025 and brought approximately 460,000 active customers onto IG's platform. On an organic, continuing-operations basis, active customers grew 6% to 281,300, a more modest figure that nonetheless represents an improvement on prior-year trends.
First trades on an organic basis rose 54% to 103,800, suggesting that IG's investment in marketing and product development is beginning to attract genuinely new trading activity rather than simply absorbing acquired users. As FinanceMagnates.com reported, the group had already signaled momentum building through fiscal year 2025, with active clients rising 2% quarter-on-quarter even before Freetrade was folded in.
Fixed cost to serve per customer fell 8% organically since the end of 2023, the company said, as digital servicing, faster KYC processes and AI-powered onboarding began delivering measurable savings.
tastytrade Pushes US Revenue to £186.7m
IG's US division, built around its tastytrade platform acquired in 2021 for $1 billion, generated net trading revenue of £186.7 million in CY25, up 18% year-on-year. Exchange-traded derivatives, the core tastytrade product, contributed £153.2 million of that total, driven by higher payment-for-order-flow rates and double-digit growth in active customers and first trades.
Assets under administration at tastytrade climbed 47% to £18.2 billion at 31 December 2025, benefiting from strong market performance, net inflows and a rapidly growing customer base.
As FinanceMagnates.com examined in February, IG's US bet now contributes meaningfully to the case that CFD-heritage brokers can build durable non-OTC businesses, with tastytrade delivering 23% net trading revenue growth in US dollar terms in 2025 alone.
Freetrade Beds In, Crypto Ambitions Grow
Freetrade contributed £24.2 million to total revenue in its first nine months as part of the group, surpassing IG's own guidance of approximately £20 million. Assets under administration on the Freetrade platform reached £3.3 billion at 31 December 2025, up 34%, and grew further to over £3.5 billion by 28 February 2026.
The group launched a zero-commission mutual fund offering in October 2025, which has since expanded to over 760 funds across 40 managers, and introduced free SIPPs in January 2026, which the company says have prompted over £250 million in pension transfer applications.
On the crypto front, IG secured both an FCA registration and a European MiCA licence in 2025, and completed the acquisition of Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve on 30 January 2026 for a provisional consideration of approximately £67.7 million.
IG launched spot crypto trading in Australia in March 2026, powered by Independent Reserve, with plans to extend the offering to Singapore and the UAE in the second half of 2026. The group's AI-driven compliance operations, expanded through a partnership with Adclear, now see 87% of marketing assets approved within target timeframes.
Revenue Mix and What Comes Next
OTC derivatives remain the dominant revenue engine, generating £781.4 million in net trading revenue for CY25, up 8%, with customer income retention improving by more than four percentage points to over 83% following spread realignment and passive hedging adjustments introduced in late 2024.
Stock trading and investments nearly doubled, rising 96% to £68.4 million, driven by the rollout of zero-commission equity trading across the UK, Ireland, Singapore and France, where organic first trades in the UK and Ireland alone grew 52% year-on-year in the three months to 28 February 2026.
The momentum carried into early 2026, with Q3 total revenue up 2% to £274.2 million, net trading revenue up 5% to £247.2 million, and assets under administration on the IG platform reaching £19.5 billion.
For the full year, the group guided to approximately 7% revenue growth in the first quarter, full-year EBITDA broadly in line with consensus at £538.1 million, and organic revenue growth towards the top end of its mid-to-high single-digit target range over the medium term. A final dividend of 28.12 pence per share was proposed for the seven-month transitional period, with the Annual General Meeting set for 19 May 2026.
