New regulations, major political events and global economic certainties failed to put IG Group PLC (LON:IGG) off its stride in its latest half.
The online trading and spread betting firm saw revenues increase by 14% to £244.9mln in the six months to end November, slightly ahead of market expectations.
The record revenue was driven largely by an all-time high number of active users who signed up to the platform during the period, which was ahead of the prior year by 59%.
However, the cost to attract these new customers hit IG’s bottom line.
Operating expenses were up 23% compared to the same period last year, which included a “significant investment in effective marketing”.
That meant pre-tax profits for the period came in at £105.2mln; a 6.7% year-on-year rise, although it fell short of the circa £109mln analysts had hoped for.
The decent performance comes against a volatile backdrop in the industry.
Brexit and Trump caused political and economic uncertainties which generally help trading volumes, although new regulations introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) hit the trading sector weren’t as helpful.
The fallout from the changes is unlikely to be felt during the current financial year (to end May), IG added, although it has withdrawn its Sprints binary product which broker Liberum believes may be “a pre-emptive measure to mitigate further regulation”.
“The business once again proved the resilience of its operating model and its people, as it dealt exceptionally well with the short term volatility in the financial markets caused by two significant political events,” said chief executive Peter Hetherington.
“We welcome the intentions of the FCA and other European regulators to improve consumer outcomes across the industry, and we believe that IG's Limited Risk account will play an important role in this.”
Given the uncertainties noted by the company in respect of the new regulations and their potential impact, many brokers have their targets and recommendations under review while they wait on more information.
Shares were up slightly to 545p in early deals.