Fiscal 2016 will be IG Group’s first year under the stewardship of new CEO Peter Hetherington, and it looks like it will be a good one.
Leading UK online broker IG Group Holdings plc (LON:IGG) provided a Trading Update on its 2016 financial results, indicating that the company expects full year 2016 earnings to be slightly ahead of expectations.
IG Group has a May 31 fiscal year end, so the financial year in question ends today.
IG indicated that its businesses have performed well during what was a relatively quiet fourth quarter of the year (March through May 2016) in financial markets, with all key operating and financial metrics remaining strong.
As outlined in the company’s third quarter Trading Update, this continued robust performance has resulted in higher variable operating costs in the last part of the year, including an increase in online marketing spend, where the company believes that payback remains compelling. This cost increase was more than offset by the ongoing strength in trading revenue, meaning the Company now expects full year earnings to be slightly ahead of expectations.
IG has recently also been expanding outside its traditional spheres of online spread betting and Forex and CFD trading. We recently reported that IG had signed an agreement with pensions provider James Hay to launch self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) for IG clients. IG has also been actively growing its stockbroking platform.
We would remind our readers that IG’s better-than-expected results for Q4 and the full year come on the heels of record revenues of £122 million which IG reported in Q3, as follows.
IG will report its full 2016 fiscal results on Tuesday July 19.
IG Group’s 2016 Trading Update can be seen here.