By Elena Vardon

IG Group reported a jump in profit for the first half of its fiscal year, driven by higher revenue, and boosted its returns to shareholders.

The online-trading company said pretax profit for the six months ended Nov. 30 was 249.3 million pounds ($307 million) compared with 176.4 million pounds in the same period a year earlier. Adjusted pretax profit--which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--climbed 30% to 266.8 million pounds, with its margin rising to 51.1% from 43.5%.

The company reported an 11% increase in revenue to 522.5 million pounds on higher trading revenue as customers increased their spend. Net interest income was flat as higher client money balances offset lower interest rates, it said.

"[The] first-half performance reflected more supportive market conditions, but we have work to do to grow active customers," Chief Executive Breon Corcoran said.

IG Group declared an interim dividend of 13.86 pence a share, up from 13.56 pence a year prior. It also plans to buy back 50 million pounds more in shares, bringing its current program--which will be completed in the second half of the fiscal year--to 200 million pounds.

Corcoran said management is confident that the group will meet pretax profit and revenue expectations for the year and that current trading has been satisfactory. Analysts pencil in 493.4 million pounds in pretax profit on revenue of 1.03 billion pounds for fiscal 2025, according to a company-compiled consensus.

Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 23, 2025 02:21 ET (07:21 GMT)

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