IG Group Posts Upbeat Q3 Operations Update as Europe Remains Strong

IG Group has issued its Q3 Interim Management Statement for the three month period ending February 28th. During the quarter revenues rose 9% from the same period last year to £96.7 million. The broker attributed the growth partly to “an unseasonably strong December”, but also added that “conditions were reasonably supportive throughout the quarter as the financial markets responded to several catalysts, including the clarity around tapering in the US and weaker than anticipated Chinese economic data.” The year-over-year growth was even more impressive when factoring that the beginning of 2013 was an especially profitable time for many brokers, with IG themselves reporting 18% year-over-year growth in the same quarter last year.

Among individual regions, continuing the trend from H1’s results, with revenues from Europe outperforming all other markets. During the quarter, revenues from Europe rose 19% from the same period last year to £21.5 million on a 5% increase in client size. IG noted  growth specifically from Germany and France.

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Also strong was the UK where total revenues were £50.9 million, 11% year-over-year growth. UK growth occurred even as the region’s active client base dropped by 11%. According to IG Group, the drop in client size was due to a “deliberate de-emphasising of very low value clients”. The worst performing region was the “Rest of World” (ROW) market, where revenues fell 7% to £11.4 million on a 10% decline in client size. Although an area of growth in the past, IG blamed the current weakness on “continuing dull forex markets” in Singapore and Japan which had been outperformers in the same period last year.

Following the Q3 figures, IG forecasted that the firm expects to be on track to meet FY14 expectations, on higher year-over-year revenues as well as a reduction of expenses on the heels of a £2 million decrease in FSCS charges. While not providing much of an update of future developments as they did in the H1 statement, IG did state that mobile was an area they were putting their technology focus on.