IG Group is set to provide clients with stock brokering services as an adjunct to their existing spread betting operator’s long term plan in order to diversify its business opportunities. The move by the UK’s largest spread betting operator by sales came about as several of its peers have been consolidating and seeking to grow their customer bases in a less established overseas markets.
Currently, the company is taking the first steps extending a stock broking business, which they perceive as a natural evolution of what active traders and investors do in their daily activities. Moreover, the intended service would appear to satisfy a demand among many of IG’s clients, who already have equity portfolios and could also use this as a guarantee to trade several leveraged products.
IG would run a pilot later this year which will allow clients to trade and hold equities directly alongside equity contracts for difference which is basically the main product spread betting companies provide outside of the UK. It is really all about IG moving beyond its usual role as a spread betting business wherein a business, which individuals already know is a place to go to trade securities.
Last week, IG said that its revenues decreased by 1.4 % year-on-year to £361.9 million in the year which recently ended this second quarter. The group said that its preliminary results reflected a much quieter period of trading in the first six months of the year and was able to gain momentum in the second half- as traders sought to cash in on the market volatility from events such as the US fiscal cliff discussions and the Cyprus “bail-in”.
IG’s pre-tax profit in the period increased by 3.5 % year-on-year amounting to £192.2 million. Moreover, the group would be seeking to invest its operations in other countries next year. Germany and Singapore are among the contemplated countries for possible engagement because of their fast growing markets.
Finally, shares in the company closed down 2.69 % at £5.82 which increased just over 30 % over the past 12 months.