IG Group Holdings plc
21 July 2015
IG Group Holdings plc (the "Company", "IG" or "IG Group"), a global leader in online trading, today announces that Tim Howkins, Chief Executive Officer, has informed the Board of his intention to retire, and will step down as CEO and as a director at the AGM in October. After the AGM, Peter Hetherington, a Board member since 2002 and currently Chief Operating Officer, will assume the role of Interim Chief Executive, subject to regulatory approval.
Tim Howkins commented:
"After 16 years at IG, seven as CFO and almost nine as CEO, I have informed the board of my intention to retire.
Firstly and mainly, I would like to thank all of IG's employees, past and present, for their hard work and dedication and for helping to make the last 16 years such an enjoyable and rewarding experience. I would also like to express my gratitude to the clients who have put their trust in IG over the years. I also want to thank the loyal shareholders who put their faith in IG and supported it with their investment.
During my time at IG I have seen our business transform, as we have grown revenues from £12 million to an underlying £400 million. In my time as CEO, we have grown earnings per share from 10.88 pence to an underlying 41.07 pence, and have gone from less than 10% of our revenue coming from outside the UK to now almost 50%. Our group now has offices in 20 countries and includes a US regulated exchange and a Swiss Bank. This has been a great team effort. I have been surrounded by an extremely talented senior management team, a number of whom have been with me throughout my tenure as CEO, and I have every confidence that this team will continue to drive the business forward with the same degree of success. I very much look forward to seeing the more recent initiatives we have started together come to fruition over the coming years."
Andy Green, Chairman of IG, said:
"After a long and extremely successful career at IG, as both CFO and CEO, Tim Howkins has informed the Board of his intention to retire. Tim's career at IG has spanned 16 years and he has been part of and led extremely dedicated teams which have built IG from a single office in London to the global leader it is today. Although I have only had the pleasure of working with Tim for the last year, I would like to express my personal gratitude and I'm sure I speak for all the employees at IG, past and present, in wishing him every success in the future. The Board is disappointed to lose somebody with Tim's proven leadership skills but fully understands his decision.
The Board has commenced a thorough search and selection process for a permanent successor, and I am pleased that Peter Hetherington, who has been integral to the successful development of the company, has confirmed that he would like to enter this process."
For further information, please contact:
IG Group
Kieran McKinney
Head of Investor Relations 020 7573 0026
FTI Consulting
Neil Doyle / Ed Berry 020 3727 1141 / 1046
IG is a global leader in online trading, providing fast and flexible access to over 10,000 financial markets - including shares, indices, forex, commodities and binaries.
Established forty years ago as the world's first financial spread betting firm, IG's aim is to become the default choice for active traders globally. It is an award-winning multi-platform trading company, the world's No.1 provider of CFDs* and a global leader in forex, and it now offers an execution-only stockbroking service in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.
It is a member of the FTSE 250, with offices across Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the US, where it offers limited risk derivatives contracts via the Nadex brand.
*Based on revenue excluding FX, published financial statements, July 2014.
