IG Group issues a trading update for the three months to 31 August 2015
IG Group, a global leader in online trading, today issues the following Trading Update for the three months to 31 August 2015, the first quarter of its 2016 financial year. The trends and figures highlighted below refer to this period and the corresponding period last year.
Revenue in the first quarter was £106.0 million, 24% ahead of the same quarter of the prior year, which was particularly subdued. In what is traditionally a relatively quiet period for the business, the financial markets presented a range of trading opportunities for clients, responding to news flow, including around the Greek eurozone membership debate and the current state of the Chinese economy. Although the performance was good in all months in the quarter, client activity levels were at their highest during the second half of August.
Revenue and key performance indicators by region are as follows:
At a Group level, active client numbers were ahead of the same quarter in the prior year by 19% and ahead of the fourth quarter of 2015 by 4.9%. The growth in active client numbers was driven predominantly by the continued strong levels of new client recruitment; client first trades in the quarter were ahead of the same period in the prior year by over 50%, having grown in each quarter throughout the 2015 financial year. The higher client recruitment levels are partly a factor of recent market volatility and partly a reflection of the improvements the business is making in the effectiveness of its marketing.
Revenue was ahead in all geographic regions. The UK continues to perform well, with revenue ahead by 23%, driven by growth in both active client numbers and average revenue per client. Recent client growth trends in Europe continue, with active client numbers up by 18% on the same period last year; this was partially offset by a fall of around 4% in average revenue per client, although this measure was slightly ahead of the fourth quarter of last year. In the Australian office, revenue and client numbers were up by around 20%, with just over a quarter of the client growth coming from the broader APAC region. Revenue in Rest of World was ahead by 54%, with growth in client numbers and average revenue per client in all countries.
Source: IG Group
