Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
IG Group, a major global forex broker based in the UK, has reported a record revenue of £491.1 million for the financial year that ended on March 31, 2017. compared to FY 2016, the result is 8% higher. The company described the result as “a good performance in relatively quiet financial markets”.
The profit after taxation saw a more moderate rise of 3%, to £169.2 million.
Overall, the best performer was IG’s home market UK, where it is also the leader. The revenue there stood at £223 million. However, the figure is mostly unchanged from FY2016. At the same time the EMEA region has performed really well, posting a 17% increase in profit, particularly in Switzerland, Dubai and South Africa. Another good performer was the APAC region, which posted a 9% increase over the year.
At the same time, over-the-counter client numbers rose across all regions, with an average of 7%. The number of new clients in terms of new trades also rose, with the impressive 38% from the previous financial year.
“It was an interesting and challenging year in terms of global news flow, especially in the political and regulatory sphere, but the year turned out to be one of the least volatile in financial markets for decades. Against this backdrop I am pleased that IG once again delivered record revenue and profits”, commented Peter Hetherington, Chief Executive of IG Group.
He also observed that client outcomes have suffered in recent years, as unsuspecting and inexperienced consumers were targeted with leveraged products. “Our efforts are concentrated on ensuring that appropriate clients can continue to trade on a level playing field. IG will continue to carefully consider and improve its procedures to ensure we either set or achieve industry best practice”, Hetherington said.
In terms of segments, IG reported that its share dealing service launched in UK in 2014 and in Australia in mid-2016, performed particularly well in both countries and at the end of FY2017 had a little over 20 000 clients, up 200% from last FY.
Nadex, the US binary options exchange of IG also performed well, posting a revenue increase of 26% over the year, or £14.1 million.
As for the purchase of the DailyFx site from FXCM for $40 million, IG notes that the website delivers the expected number of new leads, the rate of conversion into trading clients has been lower than anticipated. “However the accounts which are opened have proved to be more valuable than expected”, IG noted in its report. “This asset is likely to prove increasingly valuable in countries where paid-for-marketing restrictions are put in place.”
IG is a financial services provider with over 40 years’ trading experience. It was the first company to launch spread betting, and it also offers trading in contracts for difference (CFDs), forex, stocks, bonds, binaries, and Bitcoin. It is primarily regulated by UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), but its subsidiaries have licenses from the authorities in Australia, Japan, South Africa, UAE and Singapore.
