IG Group loses almost £1bn in value as revenue warning rattles the City
The FTSE 100 trading platform cut its 2026 revenue growth forecast after weaker trading in its derivatives business, sending its shares down 27 per cent and dragging rivals with it.
Almost £1bn was wiped off the value of IG Group on Friday after the FTSE 100 online trading business cut its 2026 revenue growth forecast. Shares fell by as much as 27 per cent to 937p, their lowest since April 2025, before closing 22.6 per cent lower at 990p, valuing the company at £3.3bn.
IG said third-quarter revenue was expected to be about £240m, down from £280m a year earlier and well below the £313m City analysts had expected. The company cut its full-year revenue growth forecast to the “mid-single-digit per cent range”, having previously told shareholders to expect organic growth of between 10 and 15 per cent in 2026.
Breon Corcoran, IG's chief executive, said the company had been hurt by “less supportive market conditions” in the three months to the end of September, which affected the amount of income it retained from clients using leveraged trading products. Part of the group's “revenue retention” depends on how clients' market bets perform, with profitable wagers costing the company money.
I remain confident in meeting our medium-term guidance.Breon Corcoran, chief executive, IG Group
The warning rattled the wider sector. Shares in rival online trading firms CMC Markets and Plus500 fell sharply; Plus500 issued a statement insisting it “continues to trade in line with current market expectations”, helping its shares pare losses to close 5.2 per cent down at £32.40, while CMC closed 4 per cent lower at 632p.
IG said it retained about 70 per cent of revenue from customer trading in its over-the-counter derivatives business during the quarter, below the roughly 80 per cent averaged since the second half of 2025.
It is the second time in as many months that IG has rattled investors: in July it disclosed, alongside disappointing first-half results, that it was spending as much as $1.3bn on the American prediction markets business Underdog.
Corcoran, who took charge in early 2024, is due to give a strategy update on 22 October. He said: “I remain confident in meeting our medium-term guidance.”
He is in the midst of a reorganisation that involves redomiciling the company to Jersey and cutting hundreds of jobs from a workforce that totalled 2,300 at the end of June. The overhaul cost £16.4m in the first half and the company said on Friday the bill would rise to about £30m by the end of the year.
Founded in 1974 by Stuart Wheeler, IG pioneered spread-betting in financial markets.
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